The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday lambasted President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) over his comment that dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) had once said that "the Republic of China [ROC] had already perished following the loss of mainland China."
At a press conference on Thursday, Chen said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had eliminated the ROC. The comment came in response to criticism from KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who had accused the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of colluding with China in attacking the ROC.
"Please don't forget that on March 13, 1950, former president Chiang Kai-shek said on Yangmingshan that the ROC had already perished following the loss of mainland China and they were the people of a conquered nation," Chen said on Thursday.
"The KMT cannot distort history and blame the DPP for something we did not do," he said.
KMT caucus whip Kuo Su-chun (郭素春) yesterday said that Chen was the one who was "twisting historical fact."
KMT Legislator John Chiang (
Saying that Chiang Kai-shek's actual words were, "Our ROC almost perished as of the end of last year [1949] after the loss of mainland China," John Chiang said his grandfather used the word "almost" to emphasize the need for KMT staffers to remember the defeat.
"The former president never said that the ROC perished," he said, adding that he was considering a defamation suit against Chen.
Showing the press a transcription of Chiang Kai-shek's 1950 speech, Shao Ming-huang (邵銘煌), director of the KMT's party archives library, said Chen had garbled Chiang Kai-shek's message.
Shao dismissed Chen's interpretation of the speech as "immoral," and said the president was indulging in "political discourse" instead of sticking to "historical facts."
Shao said that Chiang Kai-shek had delivered the speech after he resumed the "presidency of the ROC" on March 1, 1950, so it was "illogical" for Chen to allege that Chiang Kai-shek had admitted the demise of the ROC.
The record of the speech provided by the library stated: "Our ROC almost perished as of the end of last year [1949] after the loss of mainland China. We have all become conquered people, but we are unaware of this. Isn't this sad ... we should regard `revival of the ROC' as our common goal.'"
China yesterday issued a sweeping denunciation of Chen, accusing him of stirring animosity between the two sides of the Strait.
The statement from an unidentified spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office came after Chen accused Beijing of practicing totalitarianism and threatening world peace in a National Day speech in Taipei on Wednesday.
Chen "ignored the Taiwanese compatriots' wish for peace, stability and development," said the Chinese statement, carried on the Web site of the official China News Service.
"At the same time, he flew the flag of democracy and human rights, endeavoring to cover the wounds of his many scandals, deliberately provoked antagonism between the two sides in the name of his own selfish interests and that of his party," it said.
Additional reporting by AP
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
RSS