A quarrel broke out between students and a “military instructor” this week at Fu Jen Catholic University in New Taipei City, where students initiated a campaign to remove a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) from the school grounds.
Leading the campaign were three law students who had designed stickers with the slogan “Support us to get rid of the poison residue of Chiang Kai-shek from campus” (無限期支持蔣介石遺毒滾出校園), a red slash on a picture of Chiang and “Get Out!” in English.
When the three students put the stickers on a campus statue of Chiang earlier this week, a man nearby began a heated argument and tried to detain the students.
Screengrab from National Kaohsiung Normal University’s Facebook page
One of the students filmed the incident and posted it online.
The angry man, surnamed Shang (尚), was the university’s military instructor.
Shouting, he called for the students to be arrested because they had broken school regulations by vandalizing public property.
“Who gave you the right to put stickers here? What you are doing is a criminal act,” Shang said.
Initially, the students refused to remove the stickers and retorted: “Why can we not put stickers here? Please tell us which school regulation we are violating.”
As the quarrel continued, Shang got more angry and shouted: “In my heart, Chiang Kai-shek is a great man.”
“I was a captain in the military police. I have also been a prison warden, so I know the kind of crime you have committed,” he added, demanding to know the students’ names, their identification numbers and other personal information.
The students finally gave Shang their names and other personal information, while complaining that his verbal threats and his attempts to keep them from the statue were offenses against their personal liberty.
The video was heatedly discussed by netizens.
“These military instructors are using their rank to oppress people. It felt like turning back the clock, to be living under martial law,” one netizen wrote.
“How can we still allow these officers, who have left or retired from the military, to continue such repression and abuse of students?” another wrote.
Some netizens said the students were wrong to “deface” the statue and had violated school regulations, while others insisted that all Chiang Kai-shek statues should be removed from all university campuses.
Fu Jen Catholic University director of public affairs Wu Chi-mei (吳紀美) denied Shang had called the police and asked them to arrest the students or taken any action to punish the students.
Wu said Shang did not mean any harm and he was just trying to stop school property being vandalized, adding that he had been in the job for one-and-a-half years and had not previously had any conflict with students.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
Taiwan is to extend its visa-waiver program for Philippine passport holders for another year, starting on Aug. 1, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said on Friday. Lin made the announcement during a reception in Taipei marking the 127th anniversary of Philippine independence and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The decision reflected Taiwan’s commitment to deepening exchanges with the Philippines, the statement cited Lin as saying, adding that it was a key partner under the New Southbound Policy launched in 2016. Lin also expressed hope
RSS