The Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例), which aims to remove authoritarian-era symbols and retry cases of injustice from that era, was passed by the Legislative Yuan yesterday evening.
The act is aimed at addressing injustices perpetrated by then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government between Aug. 15, 1945, when the Japanese government announced it had surrendered, to Nov. 6, 1992, when the Period of National Mobilization against Communist Rebellion ended in Kinmen and Lienchiang counties.
A nine-member Transitional Justice Promotion Committee is to be created, to be overseen by the Executive Yuan, with its chairman nominated by the premier and approved by at least half of the members of the Legislative Yuan.
Photo: CNA
The committee is also to address and utilize ill-gotten political party assets, but its purview will not include items already covered by the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理).
The new act states that data unconstitutionally seized during the authoritarian era are to be collated and archived and made available for research and educational purposes as long as people mentioned in the data have their privacy and their freedom of communication protected.
Authoritarian symbols commemorating dictators that are publicly displayed are to be removed, renamed or addressed by other means as a way of upholding the nation’s free and democratic constitutional system.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
Criminal cases found to have been unjustly adjudicated on are to be reinvestigated by the committee, with defendants granted retrial. People found responsible for mistrials are to be held accountable and required to compensate defendants and their family members as well as to take measures to restore their reputations.
Political parties, their affiliates and organizations they operate are to report to the committee any political files in their possession which, if necessary, are to be transferred to the government and archived.
Those that fail to do so could be fined between NT$1 million and NT$5 million (US$33,341 and US$166,705) and could be subject to repeated fines.
People found guilty of disposing of, sabotaging or concealing political data owned by political parties or their affiliated organizations could face prison sentences of up to five years.
People who object to rulings by the committee would have one month to request a reinvestigation and two months to initiate an administrative lawsuit.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has undermined the nation’s political system by creating an agency with administrative, judicial and investigative powers.
The passage of the act heralds the dawning of a new authoritarian era, KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) said.
The act clearly targets the KMT and overlooks atrocities perpetrated by the Japanese colonial government, he said.
“When the KMT regains political power, we will also propose a transitional justice bill targeting [President] Tsai’s [Ing-wen, 蔡英文] authoritarian rule,” he said.
Non-Partisan Solidarity Union Legislator May Chin (高金素梅) and New Power Party Legislator Kawlo Iyun Pacidal panned the act for not requiring the government to relinquish Aboriginal lands once held by the Japanese colonial government.
However, DPP Legislator Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) said the act “opened a new frontier” for victims of the authoritarian era, as the government can now legally investigate data from that period, seek out and punish perpetrators of injustice as well as compensate the era’s victims and restore their dignity.
This story has been updated since it was first published.
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