Several human rights groups yesterday released a joint statement panning former premier Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村) over his remarks on Sunday that the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) 38-year dictatorship during the Martial Law era was totally justified and that without it, Taiwan would not have become a democracy today.
Hau made the statement defending the KMT’s authoritarian rule during a rally attended by thousands of veteran soldiers at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei on Sunday to commemorate the dead dictator’s birthday yesterday.
“Without the Martial Law period, we wouldn’t have democracy today, without the Martial Law period, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy the freedom we have today,” Hau told the crowd, adding that many people these days have misinterpreted history and are making “unjust” assessments of Chiang’s rule.
He went on to say that the Martial Law era had been necessary because the KMT had lost the Chinese Civil War against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
“There were communist spies everywhere in Taiwan, so we certainly had to take harsh measures to protect Taiwan from the Chinese communists,” he said.
Hau said that without Chiang and his “harsh measures,” Taiwan would have been taken over by the CCP in 1949, and would not be able to enjoy freedom and democracy today.
Several human rights groups — including the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, the Taiwan Association for Truth and Reconciliation, the Dr Chen Wen-chen Memorial Foundation, the Deng Liberty Foundation, the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, the Humanistic Education Foundation and the Taiwan Labor Front — released a joint statement denouncing Hau and his remarks.
In the joint statement, the groups said that during the 38-year Martial Law period from 1949 to 1987, Taiwanese were deprived of such basic rights as the freedoms of expression and assembly.
According to the Compensation Foundation for Improper Verdicts during the Martial Law era — a semi-official organization in charge of compensating political victims and their families, as many as 7,000 political cases have been approved and granted compensation, including almost 800 death sentences.
“The comments [that Hau made] were absurd — his praising of the Martial Law period is as bad as praising the criminal acts of Nazi Germany,” the statement said.
“We condemn such regressive remarks, and demand that Mr Hau, as well as the KMT, apologize to political victims, their families and the general public for their repeated absurd remarks,” the statement said.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
Greenpeace yesterday said that it is to appeal a decision last month by the Taipei High Administrative Court to dismiss its 2021 lawsuit against the Ministry of Economic Affairs over “loose” regulations governing major corporate electricity consumers. The climate-related lawsuit — the first of its kind in Taiwan — sought to require the government to enforce higher green energy thresholds on major corporations to reduce emissions in light of climate change and an uptick in extreme weather. The suit, filed by Greenpeace East Asia, the Environmental Jurists Association and four individual plaintiffs, was dismissed on May 8 following four years of litigation. The
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
The New Taipei City Government would assist relatives of those killed or injured in last month’s car-ramming incident in Sansia District (三峽) to secure compensation, Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said yesterday, two days after the driver died in a hospital. “The city government will do its best to help the relatives of the car crash incident seek compensation,” Hou said. The mayor also said that the city’s Legal Affairs, Education and Social Welfare departments have established a joint mechanism to “provide coordinated assistance” to victims and their families. Three people were killed and 12 injured when a car plowed into schoolchildren and their
RSS