Prosecutors yesterday declined to file charges against four people suspected of vandalizing a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) at Fu Jen Catholic University earlier this year.
After completing its investigation, the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office said there would be no charges filed against the four suspects, three of whom are university students, over the vandalism on Feb. 28, the 70th anniversary of the 228 Incident.
Investigators said that on Feb. 28, a dozen people gathered on the university’s campus with a portable electric grinder and hand tools to deface the statue.
Photo: CNA
Bystanders called the police, who arrived after the group had broken off the bronze statue’s cane, the investigators said, adding that a confrontation ensued after police tried to stop the group, with both sides later saying they sustained minor cuts and bruises.
Police apprehended four people and sought to press charges of obstructing an officer in discharge of their duties.
However, prosecutors yesterday said the charges were dropped because the four were not violent and did not resist arrest.
Photo: Lee Ya-wen, Taipei Times
Investigators quoted one of the students, surnamed Lo (羅), as saying during questioning that “the statue of Chiang Kai-shek symbolizes the past authoritarian dictatorship. It should not continue to stand inside schools. We just wanted to remove it.”
Separately yesterday, a statue of Chiang at Zhongzheng Senior High School in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) was found decapitated and covered with the slogan “No removal, no name change; then it is decapitation” written in white paint.
School officials called the police after learning of the incident in the morning.
There has been a campaign by local residents and pro-Taiwan civic groups calling for the school’s original name, Shilin High School, to be restored.
The then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime mandated the name change in 1975 to commemorate Chiang, who died earlier that year. Zhongzheng (中正) is the adulatory name used by the cult of personality that worships Chiang.
Local residents have cited the current name’s political connotations when lending their support to the campaign, and many still refer to the school by its old name.
Taipei police said they dispatched a forensics team to gather evidence and examine surveillance camera footage of the incident.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
RSS