It happened almost 50 years ago, during the White Terror period, but finally justice has triumphed. The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday ordered the government to pay approximately NT$3 million in compensation to a former English teacher who was jailed in 1951 for 616 days. His crime? Owning a copy of Karl Marx' book titled Dialectical Materialism.
Ko Chi-hua (
After his trial, which lasted for a month, Ko, was sent first to a Garrison Command detention center in Taipei for "thought reform" and later transferred to a jail on Green Island.
According to his lawyer, Ko was illegally detained during the White Terror period and the case against him never went through an open trial. He was released from prison on April 6, 1953.
In later years, Ko wrote several English-language reference books and became a well-known English teacher trainer.
Where did the Chinese come from?
"According to ancient tradition," Anthony Spaeth writes in a recent issue of Time magazine, "the Chinese were savages until various sages came along and taught them how to contruct shelters, use fire and cultivate crops. The last of these sages was the Yellow Emperor Huangdi, the father of Chinese civilization."
That's the traditional view. The new scientific view, part of the Chinese Human Genome Diversity Project, takes a different approach and comes up with this verdict: Chinese, like the rest of humanity, evolved from Africa.
"They migrated eastward along the Indian Ocean and made their way to China via Southeast Asia," Spaeth writes.
Truth or mere speculation? Read the article and come to your own conclusions.
Tank Town along the Potomac
What do you call a city with a lot of think tanks? According to a recent article in the Washington Post, Washington has a new nickname: "Tank Town." It's a place "awash in smart thoughts and prescient predictions," the Post noted.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
REGIONAL STABILITY: Taipei thanked the Biden administration for authorizing its 16th sale of military goods and services to uphold Taiwan’s defense and safety The US Department of State has approved the sale of US$228 million of military goods and services to Taiwan, the US Department of Defense said on Monday. The state department “made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale” to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US for “return, repair and reshipment of spare parts and related equipment,” the defense department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a news release. Taiwan had requested the purchase of items and services which include the “return, repair and reshipment of classified and unclassified spare parts for aircraft and related equipment; US Government
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from