Relatives of 228 Incident victims yesterday called on the government to follow through on its proposal to rename the Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) Memorial Hall and remove its authoritarian symbols as part of efforts to address past human rights violations.
Following the Ministry of Culture’s announcement on Saturday that it is working on a bill to reinvent the hall — that might rename the Taipei landmark and remove Chiang’s statue from it — a number of families of the victims of the incident held an impromptu news conference at the hall yesterday to express support for the changes.
Chiang was primarily responsible for the mass casualties of the 228 Massacre, but the former president has been “deified and enshrined in a massive imperial tomb,” which is an insult to those killed and their relatives, Memorial Foundation of 228 chief executive officer Yang Chen-long (楊振隆) said.
“The ubiquity of Chiang statues is unbearable for families of the victims, who know perfectly well Chiang’s role in the death of their relatives,” Yang said.
It is imperative to cease the glorification of Chiang so he can be judged for what he did, he said.
“High-school students donning Nazi costumes [in Hsinchu City last year] sparked international criticism, and we hope the same standards are applied to [the worship of Chiang],” Yang said.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) criticized the ministry, saying that the changes would cause social division, but the nation cannot redress the consequences of the KMT regime without bringing about transitional justice, he said.
Ou Yang Hui-mei (歐陽煇美) said her father, Ou Yang Wen (歐陽文) — a student of renowned painter Chen Cheng-po (陳澄波) — was wrongfully imprisoned for 12 years for participating in protests.
She criticized the decades-long public commemoration of Chiang despite the brutality of the massacre, and said the memorial hall could be repurposed into an exhibition center to display artworks created by victims and their relatives.
The government has not identified any perpetrators of the massacre although research published by the foundation in 2006 found Chiang primarily responsible for the massacre, foundation standing director Lin Li-tsai (林黎彩) said.
“There are only victims [of the 228 Incident], but there is no perpetrator. Conflicts cannot be resolved without historical responsibility being understood,” Lin said.
Lin urged the immediate passage of a law on transitional justice, which would lay the legal groundwork for seeking the truth of the Incident and holding Chiang and his accomplices accountable for the massacre.
Lin’s father was killed at a military base in Kaohsiung without a trial, she said.
Foundation standing director Lee Hui-sheng (李慧生), whose grandfather went missing during the Incident, said the removal of merchandise associated with Chiang from the hall was justified.
The commercialization of products associated with Chiang hurts the families of victims, they said.
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
‘ADDITIONAL CONDITION’: Taiwan will work with like-minded countries to protect its right to participate in next year’s meeting, the foreign ministry said The US will “continue to press China for security arrangements and protocols that safeguard all participants when attending APEC meetings in China,” a US Department of State spokesperson said yesterday, after Beijing suggested that members must adhere to its “one China principle” to participate. “The United States insists on the full and equal participation of all APEC member economies — including Taiwan — consistent with APEC’s guidelines, rules and established practice, as affirmed by China in its offer to host in 2026,” the unnamed spokesperson said in response to media queries about China putting a “one China” principle condition on Taiwan’s
RSS