The attempted assassination of late president Chiang Ching-kuo (
Chen has published his research on the incident, in which 32-year-old Taiwanese Cornell University student Peter Ng (
Chen was one of the panelists invited to speak at an Academic Historica forum in Taipei entitled "Post-World War II Dossier and History Study."
Ng, who also attended the forum, said the assassination attempt was planned by four people: himself, his sister, his brother-in-law, former secretary-general of World United Formosans for Independence (WUFI) T.T. Deh (鄭自財), and WUFI member Lai Wen-hsiung (賴文雄).
Ng raised his gun and was preparing to shoot Chiang, who was in the US to meet US president Richard Nixon in his capacity as vice premier, but a member of Chiang's US security detail struck him on the elbow, causing him to miss his mark.
Ng was wrestled to the ground and immediately arrested, along with Deh, who came to Ng's aid when he heard the shot go off.
Asked whether WUFI had backed away from the assassination attempt, Ng said: "Although there was some discussion of the assassination attempt within WUFI, [the organization] didn't come up with a concrete plan. We also wanted to protect the organization."
A guest at the forum suggested that WUFI had abandoned the assassination idea because Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮), then chairman of WUFI, was against it.
Chen said the assassination attempt had initially boosted morale among independence activists. However, he said the decision by Ng and Deh to skip bail, coupled with WUFI's mishandling of the incident, had a disruptive effect on the pro-independence camp.
Ng said in his own book that he had never considered the possibility of serving time in the US. He argued that there was no reason for him to comply with the laws of the US government, which had helped consolidate the Chiang regime.
In Chen's book, Ng was quoted as saying the assassination attempt was intended to build connections between Taiwanese independence activists and international social movements in exile.
Other topics discussed during the forum included the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime's crackdown on democracy advocates.
This was the subject of a presentation given by Lin Chi-yang (
He cited Lei Chen (
This demonstrated the KMT regime's willingness to exhaust all efforts to perpetuate its existence, Lin said.
The donation of offshore patrol vessel Kinmen to the Philippines includes provisions that protect Taiwanese fishers and facilitate security cooperation across the First Island Chain, officials said yesterday. The comment was made during the Cabinet’s comprehensive administrative report at the legislature after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) expressed concerns about the decision to give a ship to a country whose coast guard had in 2013 fired on a Taiwanese trawler and killed its captain without provocation. The Cabinet should lay out the safeguards that have been established to prevent the Philippine government from using the Kinmen to harass, expel
GROWING TIES: The CGA is planning a goodwill mission to the Philippines, in what would be the first time since 1975 a Taiwanese paramilitary vessel has visited the country The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) plans to significantly expand its participation in international security cooperative frameworks and its operational capabilities, a budget proposal for next year showed. The budget indicates a transformation of the CGA from a maritime law enforcement arm into a national defense and intelligence gathering entity capable of tackling larger regional security matters. The proposal showed that personnel from the coast guard’s Intelligence Division and Special Action Support Center are to participate in high-level national security talks with the US. As the CGA has dealt with China’s rising “gray zone” threats around Taiwan, it has become a valuable asset to
A patrol vessel donated by the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) to the Philippines was commissioned into the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Friday, a Philippine non-governmental organization said. The CGA on Sept. 16 confirmed media reports that Taiwan had donated a retired 500-tonne patrol vessel to the Philippines. The Manila-based We Protect Our Seas (WPS) foundation, which served as an intermediary in the transfer, said that the vessel was formerly the CGA’s 500-tonne petrol vessel Kinmen (CG123). The WPS, in a statement issued on Friday, said the vessel, renamed as the BRP Sarangani, had been commissioned into the PCG the
‘GRAY ZONE’ TACTICS: Beijing sent two China Coast Guard vessels to escort a ‘supposedly private research ship,’ a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman said The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday confirmed that it had recently deployed three patrol vessels to waters in Taiwan’s overlapping exclusive economic zone with the Philippines to monitor three Chinese vessels. CGA Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said the agency regularly monitors Chinese vessels around Taiwan, and that the deployment south of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, was carried out in accordance with standard procedures. He added that the waters fall within the overlapping exclusive economic zones of Taiwan and the Philippines, which extend 200 nautical miles (370km) from their coastlines. Hsieh made the comments when asked about a
RSS