The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday termed Japan's 1895 to 1945 rule of Taiwan as "colonial and aggressive," stressing that from Taiwan's point of view, the island was indeed "occupied" during that period.
This is the first time the DDP has tried to shed its previous ambiguity about Japan's role in shaping Taiwan's modern history while making a distinction between Taiwan's and China's aspirations.
In a draft report jointly prepared by the party's departments of culture and communications, ethnic affairs and international affairs, the DPP said that half century of Taiwan's history can neither be simply called Japan's "neutral" rule, as some people think, nor be described as having been "ceded by China," as feudalistic Chinese imperialists see it.
"Efforts should be made to write a history of the Taiwanese people resisting Japanese aggression as they sought autonomy. Efforts should also be made to criticize the nature of colonization and suppression that was common in both the post-war [Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)] rule of Taiwan and the Japanese occupational regime," it said.
Yang Chang-chen (楊長鎮), director of the DPP's Department of Ethnic Affairs, cited the example of the KMT-run China's war of resistance against Japanese aggression, which started on July 7, 1937 with the "Marco Polo Bridge Incident."
The spirit of "war against aggression" has no borders, Yang said, adding that therefore mainland-born Taiwanese's painful memory of China's war against Japanese invasion and China's civil war between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party should not be dismissed as "their memory."
Rather, he continued, the memory should be regarded as a critical component of Taiwan's spirit of anti-aggression.
The report said the DPP respects and understands why China has since long ago demanded Tokyo apologize for its World War II aggression, but hopes that the two Asian countries will not give up any chance of exchanges that will help promote goodwill and friendship between them.
Based on the same reasoning, the report hopes that China will try to "universalize" the values of anti-colonialism and anti-aggression and seriously reflect on its relations with neighboring tribes and countries -- particularly its relations with East Turkistan and Mongolia.
Only when China can truly honor universal values and think deeply about its relations with surrounding peoples can the rest of the world be convinced that China's rise will not be tainted with expansionism and hegemony, it said.
It pointed out that Taiwan's China-resisting efforts should not be seen as aimed at playing down Japan's colonial aggression and war responsibilities.
The report said Taiwan's efforts to build good relations with Japan based on their common objective of maintaining peace and promoting democratic values should not be interpreted as "anti-China" or "hating China."
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,