The Changhua County Government yesterday demolished a former temple that had been converted into a shrine to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), while the owner protested by raising aloft the Chinese flag a final time.
Wei Ming-jen (魏明仁), a contractor and former military officer, bought the property and used it as a conduit of Chinese influence and his own interests, an official said Tuesday on condition of anonymity.
The temple was ordered demolished and its water and power supplies cut by the county on Friday last week. Changhua County Deputy Commissioner Lin Ming-yu (林明裕) yesterday oversaw the demolition work, which he ordered to commence at 10:05am.
Photo: Chen Kuan-pei, Taipei Times
The county said Wei would be responsible for paying the NT$5 million (US$162,882) cost for demolition, adding that the work would take one week to complete.
On Tuesday, about 20 people showed up to support Wei, who wore a People’s Liberation Army uniform during the flag raising.
Wei told his supporters that the demolition had historical significance, adding that the communists would “rise up again at their base in Ershuei (二水)” — the township where the property is located.
Wei ended his speech by chanting: “Long live the Chinese Communist Party. Long live the teachings of Mao Zedong [毛澤東]. Long live the People’s Republic of China.”
He said his supporters should trust him, because their “great China dream would one day be revived.”
Before the demolition began, Wei raised the Chinese flag at the temple, gathered his belongs and left, accompanied by members of the pro-unification Concentric Patriotism Association (愛國同心會).
The nearly 100-year-old temple originally served as a place of worship for local Buddhists. The temple had hired Wei to build an expansion, but later lost the building to him due to a property rights dispute.
Wei kicked out the nuns residing at the temple and replaced Buddhist statues with images of Mao, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and other CCP icons.
The Changhua County Cultural Affairs Bureau said the temple was built in 1922 and expanded in 2002.
The temple had agreed to pay NT$70 million for the expansion, but as the work progressed, Wei increased the cost to NT$90 million, which the temple was unable to afford, the bureau added.
Wei took the case to court, where it was tied up for nearly 10 years.
The Changhua District Court ordered the temple be auctioned off.
Wei’s remodeling of the temple with CCP propaganda and Chinese flags caught media attention, with the New York Times running a feature story on Sept. 19.
The nuns have been forced to live as squatters in a makeshift shack next to the property, the temple priest said, adding that he hopes “everyone can help rebuild the temple someday.”
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Changhua County Councilor Hsu Shu-wei (許書維) said he was grateful to Changhua County Commissioner Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷) for taking the lead in having the temple demolished, but added that only in deciding who had the rights to the land would justice be served.
At a news conference yesterday, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman An Fengshan (安峰山) said: “This clearly demonstrates the DPP’s indulgence of Taiwan-independence activities while it attacks and persecutes Taiwanese who advocate unification.”
Additional reporting by Chung Li-hua
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS