The Kaohsiung City Government's removal of a statue of late dictator Chiang Kai-shek (
Following the passage of a draft bill to amend the Organic Regulations Concerning the Bureau of Cultural Affairs of the Kaohsiung City Government (
As a result, the Chiang Kai-shek Culture Center was renamed Kaohsiung City Culture Center. In accordance with the Local Government Act (地方制度法), the name change did not require the approval of the city council.
More than 400 police officers were called in to maintain order while the bureau set to work removing Chiang's statue and replacing the center's nameplate on Tuesday evening.
Angry pan-blue city councilors, legislators and supporters were kept at bay by police barricades while members of the bureau completed their task. Chiang's statue was segmented for removal and a board that read "Always Remember Our Leader" was also taken down.
The clashes between demonstrators and the police continued through yesterday morning.
Chen refused to say where Chiang's statue would be stored, but said it would not be destroyed.
The Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) Kaohsiung City Council caucus issued a statement late on Tuesday night and saying that the city government should not attempt to deny the historical importance of Chiang and his contribution to the nation.
The DPP caucus, meanwhile, said that those who were opposed to the changes should "allow the culture center to be purely dedicated to cultural activities."
DPP Legislator Wang Shu-hui (王淑慧) told a press conference that the changes were in keeping with the tenets of transitional justice.
DPP Legislator Lin Su-shan (
KMT lawmakers called on the public to participate in a demonstration planned to take place at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei on March 31.
KMT Legislator Hsu Shao-ping (
"There is a culture center in remembrance of the late US president John F. Kennedy and a culture center in memory of the late French president Francois Mitterrand," said KMT Legislator John Chiang (蔣孝嚴), grandson of Chiang Kai-shek. "Why can't we have a culture center commemorating a Taiwanese politician?"
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS