A rally planned for yesterday in Taichung by members of a student group to advocate Nazi ideology and pay tribute to Hitler was canceled without explanation.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday warned the group, called the National Socialism Association (NSA), not to hold the event to revere Adolf Hitler.
The ministry said the move would tarnish Taiwan's image and offend countries invaded by Nazi Germany.
"Members of the NSA plan to meet on Saturday at the Taichung train station to pay homage to Adolf Hitler and advocate Nazism. The NSA and this event have been covered by major media outlets worldwide and have given the international community a skewed picture of Taiwan," the ministry said in a statement.
"Although Taiwan respects and enjoys freedom of speech, it is a responsible member of the global village that upholds universal values and respects human rights. Hitler and the Nazis invaded many countries during World War II and murdered 6 million Jews. This violence has been widely condemned by the international community," it added.
"In a world of increasingly frequent international exchanges, this ministry hopes that freedom of speech in Taiwan does not come at the expense of tarnishing our good name as a guardian of freedom and human rights," the statement said.
"Making sure that this does not happen is our shared responsibility. Clearly, advocating Hitler and Nazism is both wrong and harmful for Taiwan's international image," it added.
The NSA says it has 20 members and 800 supporters planning to join it.
NSA's Web site is emblazoned with an emblem similar to a swastika.
The group says it was founded 19 months ago, but only became known recently.
It claims to study the "good theories" of Hitler, like building a welfare state and wants to restore Chinese values, but also favors limiting the number of foreign workers.
On its Web site, some of the members have signed their names as "Hitler," "Hess," "Colonel," "Nazi Station Master" and "Gestapo."
The self-exposure of the NSA has triggered concerns that this could herald the emergence of a neo-Nazi movement in Taiwan.
Israel's de facto ambassador to Taiwan, Raphael Gamzou, earlier this week expressed concern over the group.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center has also condemned the NSA for its worship of Hitler.
A news broadcast by CTI TV yesterday reported that one person had showed up at Taichung train station yesterday and claimed the planned gathering was simply one for fans of World War II militarism.
Without completed infrastructure and training, the expedited sale of new F-16s from the US could become a burden rather than a help, a military official said yesterday. Reuters on Thursday last week reported that Washington is looking to accelerate the delivery of 66 new F-16C/D Block 70 aircraft in response to what it sees as increasing intimidation by Beijing. Under the terms of the original US$8 billion deal signed in 2019, the US is expected to deliver a single-seater and double-seater for testing next year, then deliver the 66 new aircraft in batches of four or five from 2024 to 2026. The officials
SLIGHTS: Beijing intends to display pro-unification messages and prominently feature Taiwanese volunteers in its propaganda videos, an official said Taiwanese officials are poised to boycott next month’s Beijing Winter Olympics, an official with knowledge of the matter said yesterday, citing concerns that China would slight Taiwan during the Games. This year’s Winter Olympics are scheduled to open on Friday next week amid a diplomatic boycott by Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Lithuania, New Zealand, the UK and the US in response to China’s human rights abuses against Uighurs in Xinjiang and crackdowns on democracy advocates in Hong Kong. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said that a Cabinet-appointed task force has determined that Taiwan’s delegation would abstain from the opening and
TRACING UNDER WAY: The CECC has identified six transmission chains among 25 recently confirmed COVID-19 cases, including those linked to a restaurant and a bank The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 54 new COVID-19 infections — 44 imported and 10 local — and identified six transmission chains among local cases. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said the imported cases are 18 who tested positive upon arrival at the airport and 26 who tested positive during quarantine. Of the local cases, seven are associated with a cluster infection at a Tasty Steak (西堤牛排) outlet in Taoyuan’s Zhongli District (中壢), one is linked to a family of four with COVID-19 reported on Monday, one is a family member of an
INCREASED COOPERATION: Part of the funding is to be used to further the aims of a Taiwan-US human resources development platform launched in 2015, a source said An increase of ￥100 million (US$878,765) to Japan’s annual foreign affairs budget is for “advancing the Japan-Taiwan relationship,” information published on the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Web site showed. The ministry’s budget for last year was ￥1.7 billion; it was increased to ￥1.8 billion for this year. The ministry wrote that the additional funding was to be used for “cooperating with allies and like-minded countries to safeguard the universal values of the international community.” Regarding Taiwan specifically, the ministry said that it was “responding to an increasingly complex security and economic environment,” and that it aimed to “strengthen diplomacy and cooperation
RSS