The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) yesterday promised to temporarily suspend the demolition of the Huaguang Community (華光社區) in Taipei while the city government evaluates the remains of the former Taihoku Prison at the site.
“We will patiently wait and suspend the demolition work while the city reviews whether the remains of the former prison have historic value,” ministry official Lu Che-ko (盧哲科) told a press conference at the legislature in Taipei.
At the press conference, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) and members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors (TAUP) voiced their concerns over historic relics at the site.
A Taipei City Government Cultural Assets Review Committee meeting about the site is scheduled to be held on Monday.
“Several buildings in the community have temporarily been designated historic by the Taipei City Government, therefore the MOJ should stop its demolition work until the review committee comes to a final decision,” Yao said. “I would propose preserving not only the historic buildings, but also the green areas, which could be connected to neighborhoods around Yongkang Street and National Taiwan Normal University to make it an area of interest to tourists, with culture and a green belt.”
“We’ve always stayed in touch with Taipei’s Department of Cultural Affairs to make sure our demolitions do not harm historic buildings or trees,” Lu replied.
TAUP chairman Lu Chung-chin (呂宗津), an electrical engineering professor at National Tsing Hua University, said that preserving historical assets is far more important than development.
“The former Taihoku Prison bears witness to the struggles of Taiwanese during the Japanese colonial period,” said Chuang Wan-shou (莊萬壽), emeritus professor at Chang Jung Christian University’s Graduate Institute of Taiwan Studies. “This is the prison in which many people were jailed — including Chiang Wei-shui (蔣渭水) who led the resistance movement.”
Huaguang Community was once dormitories for prison employees during the Japanese colonial period. Although most of the prison complex was torn down, many individual buildings still stand.
When refugees and troops fled to Taiwan with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime in 1949, many were unofficially allowed to take up residence in the area.
However, a decade ago the government decided to develop the area into a financial and commercial district, and the ministry, which took over ownership of the land from the Japanese colonial government, filed lawsuits against the residents.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
When Paraguayan opposition lawmaker Leidy Galeano returned from an all-expenses-paid tour of six Chinese cities late last year, she was convinced Paraguay risked missing out on major economic gains by sticking with longtime ally Taipei over Beijing — a message that participants on the trip heard repeatedly from Chinese officials. “Everything I saw there, I wanted for my country,” said Galeano, a member of the newly-formed Yo Creo party whose senior figures have spoken favorably about China. This trip and others like it — which people familiar with the visits said were at the invitation of the Chinese consulate in Sao Paulo
RSS