The government moved another step toward changing the name of the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall back to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall yesterday, although it remains tight-lipped about the plan.
At the weekly Cabinet meeting, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) instructed the Executive Yuan to withdraw the requests to abolish the Organic Statute of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂組織條例) and the note on the existence of the Organic Statute of National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall (國立台灣民主紀念館組織規程) from the legislature.
Last year the former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government renamed the memorial as part of its efforts to remove symbols commemorating dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石). The DPP also replaced the four-character inscription on the hall’s entry arch, dazhong zhizheng (大中至正), meaning Chiang’s “great neutrality and perfect uprightness,” to “Liberty Square” (自由廣場) and redecorated the hall.
The move was controversial because the changes were made without going through the legislature. The replacement of the inscription also saw scuffles erupt between pan-blue and pan-green supporters.
However, the DPP administration’s requests to amend the two statutes were put on the back burner by the legislature.
“Since the two statutes are still before the legislature and the legislature attached a resolution on the passed 2008 budget request that required funds earmarked for the hall be written under the name of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, the government decided to withdraw the two statutes,” Executive Yuan spokeswoman Vanessa Shih (史亞平) said.
Shih denied the move was meant to restore the name of the memorial, saying that the Ministry of Education would not make a decision until it is able to reach a public consensus by holding citizen forums.
But Shih failed to explain why the government decided to retract the two statutes now if it it planned to keep the National Taiwan Democracy Hall name.
Asked to comment, Vice Minister of Education Lu Mu-lin (呂木琳) said “The name of the hall will be changed back to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall because [the name change] of the Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall was never legitimized.”
“As for the rest of the issue, we will have to reach a public consensus through public forums,” he said.
Minister of Education Cheng Jei-cheng (鄭瑞城) said later that the ministry would hold the first public forum next Friday to discuss how to deal with the inscriptions on the hall and the front gate.
A decision will be made within six months, he said.
He said he would also invite several academics to discuss the matter at next week’s forum.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS