The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday condemned vandalism of a bronze statue of Republic of China (ROC) founding father Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) in Greater Tainan and called for a rational view of the country’s history.
The 3m-tall statue in Tang Te-chang Memorial Park was pulled down on Saturday by members of the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan, a pro-independence group, to the consternation of KMT city councilors.
The KMT gravely condemns the vandalism, KMT Culture and Communication Committee head Fan Chiang Tai-chi (范姜泰基) said in a statement.
Photo: Wang Chun-chung, Taipei Times
“The Democratic Progressive Party-ruled city government’s failure to properly maintain a historic monument and protect cultural assets is regrettable,” Fan Chiang said, calling for restoration of the statue as soon as possible.
Sun established the first democratic country in Asia in 1911 and left a significant legacy of advocacy for democracy, human rights and freedom, Fan Chiang said.
“It’s deeply regrettable that a small group of people have defaced Sun’s statue in a non-democratic action,” he said.
The KMT hopes people will view history in a rational manner and refrain from radical actions that could stir up ethnic conflict and disrupt social harmony, Fan Chiang added.
He was referring to the 228 Massacre, an anti-government uprising in 1947 and subsequent brutal crackdown by the then KMT-led government.
In 1997, the then-Tainan city government converted a historic park into the Tang Te-chang Memorial Park in commemoration of Tang Te-chang (湯德章, 1907-1947), a Tainan resident and lawyer who was executed by Nationalist Army military forces on charges of rebellion during the crackdown.
When Tang was arrested by soldiers, he quickly burned a list of the names of participants in the local Settlement Committee, a move that saved the lives of a number of leading residents and students whose names were on the list.
On Saturday, Sun’s statue in the park was smeared with paint and pulled down by pro-independence advocates, led by Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan convener Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴).
As Peace Memorial Day on Feb. 28 is drawing near, “we want to take action to show our support for the 228 victims,” Tsay said.
Tsay was arrested for damaging public assets and disrupting public order, but was released after questioning.
The police later decided to send the case to prosecutors.
City Councilor Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介), who is also a member of the KMT’s Central Standing Committee, blasted the city government and police, saying they had allowed “mobs” to topple the statue and he called for its restoration.
Meanwhile, the city government expressed regret over the incident, saying it was not in keeping with the city’s plans to restore historic sites that dated back to the era of Japanese occupation from 1895 to 1945.
The local government said its historic architecture and cultural landscape commission is carrying out a study, after which a decision will be made on whether to restore the statue.
The city government had planned to relocate the statue last year, but was forced to put the plan on hold due to strong opposition by KMT politicians and supporters.
COSTLY TECH FAILURE: More than 25,000 files for nearly 8,000 students from 81 schools were lost when system administrators updated a server, the Ministry of Education said The academic records of 7,854 high-school students have been lost due to a hard-drive failure, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The records were being stored at National Chi Nan University, which was commissioned by the ministry’s K-12 Education Administration to host a computer server of student portfolios that universities could access to evaluate their applications. Under a program introduced in 2019 for high-school students starting that year, students are to create portfolios to be used for university applications, which include their grades, extracurricular activities and other information related to their character and achievements. System administrators discovered that files were missing when rebooting
921 EARTHQUAKE: The magnitude 7.3 quake left 2,456 people dead and 10,718 injured, while 53,661 houses were fully destroyed and 53,024 houses damaged The Central Weather Bureau yesterday received about 50,000 views on Facebook after it posted the data that it collected on Sept. 21, 1999, when the nation was devastated by a magnitude 7.3 earthquake. The data showed that the 921 Earthquake hit the nation at 1:47am, with the epicenter being 7km southwest of the bureau’s quake detection center in Nantou County’s Yuchi Township (魚池) at a depth of 8km. The quake left 2,456 people dead and 10,718 injured, while 53,661 houses were fully destroyed and 53,024 houses damaged, with the cost of the damage estimated at NT$300 billion (US$10.8 billion at the current
British newspaper The Mail on Sunday reported that Prince Charles met with Bruno Wang (汪家興), a Taiwanese fugitive who describes himself as a Chinese philanthropist and donated ￡500,000 (US$683,522) to the prince’s charity, the Prince’s Foundation. The newspaper reported that Wang is wanted in Taiwan on charges related to money laundering and being a fugitive from justice, allegations he denies, and drew comparisons between Wang and the Russian banker Dmitry Leus. Investigation and cooperation with foreign authorities have found that Bruno Wang’s father, Andrew Wang (汪傳浦), had stashed proceeds from a scandal involving the procurement of Lafayette frigates in 61 bank accounts,
AT ODDS: The KMT called on the government to seek bilateral dialogue with Beijing to resolve the issue that led to the ban on custard apple and wax apple imports Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials and lawmakers yesterday condemned China’s sudden ban on imports of custard apples and wax apples from Taiwan as “obvious political retaliation,” while the opposition called for a scientific investigation into Beijing’s claim to have found pests in imports of the fruits. China earlier yesterday announced a ban on the importation of the two fruits from today, citing repeated discoveries of Planococcus minor, a type of mealybug. The announcement follows a similar ban on Taiwanese pineapples imposed in February. At least Beijing gave a few days’ notice when it banned pineapple imports, an unnamed government official said yesterday. This time
RSS