The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday promised to take responsibility for the 228 Incident and take care of victims of the violence and their family members during a memorial ceremony that the party held for a second time at the 228 Memorial Peace Park in Taipei.
The memorial ceremony marked the 60th anniversary of the 228 Incident. It was one of a series of events that the KMT has arranged to work toward reconciliation with 228 victims and members of their families.
Although no longer serving as party chairman following his indictment on corruption charges, Ma Ying-jeou (
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
He urged the party and the government to continue revealing more of the "truth" behind the incident and other unsolved cases from the White Terror era, including the murder of the family members of former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) and the death of academic Chen Wen-cheng (陳文成).
"It's important to continue the investigation into these incidents until the whole truth is revealed. Then the public will find real peace and reconcile," Ma said.
Instead of ethnic conflict, Ma said government suppression was the main cause of the violence.
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
"The government, not the people, should be responsible for the 228 Incident," Ma said.
"Most of the government officials were Mainlanders, while civilians were Taiwanese, and so the idea that the [228 Incident] was an ethnic conflict is a misunderstanding," Ma said.
Ma said the most important thing was remembering the incident to prevent a similar "tragedy" from happening again.
Addressing the ceremony on behalf of some 100 victims and their family members, Taipei 228 Incident Association director Liao Chi-pin (
"We are no longer an ignored group, and we should also devote our efforts to promoting a harmonious ethnic relationship," he said.
Chang An-man (張安滿), however, urged the KMT to put greater effort into making amends with 228 victims and family members.
He demanded the party include a 228 family member among its candidates for the next legislative election so that the demands of the victims could be better addressed.
Acting KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (
Most top KMT officials were in attendance, but not Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
Yang Tu (楊渡), chairman of the KMT's Culture and Communications Committee, rejected the suggestion that Wang had been excluded from the event by displaying a letter of invitation dated Feb. 15 that showed the party had invited Wang and former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) to attend the event.
The 228 Incident refers to the KMT's bloody crackdown on demonstrators and local elites under Chiang Kai-shek's administration after a confrontation between officials and residents in Taipei on Feb. 27.
The incident culminated in the slaughter of tens of thousands of Taiwanese at the hands of KMT troops.
The KMT will hold two 228 memorial concerts today and tomorrow night in Taipei's Zhongshan Hall.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods