President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) commemoration of the 70th anniversary of Retrocession Day yesterday betrayed a hidden China-centric and pro-unification agenda, academics said at a forum in Taipei.
The forum, hosted by the Taiwan Association of University Professors, was aimed at challenging the official “liberation” narrative of Taiwan’s post-World War II history.
“‘Liberation’ is the shackling of the Taiwanese by a military junta led by Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石); a shackling that is still in evidence 70 years later,” association secretary-general Hsu Wen-tang (許文堂) said. “It is a liberation that never was.”
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“The political subtext of the liberation anniversary is unification,” Taiwan Thinktank deputy executive director Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) said.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have “already arrived at a consensus” over a roadmap toward political unification in negotiations carried out “in the past one to two years,” Lai said, adding that then-Mainland Affairs Council minister Wang Yu-chi’s (王郁琦) meeting with Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) last year was designed to facilitate Ma’s hoped-for meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at the APEC summit, in Beijing.
This process would have led to the “official declaration of a KMT-CCP truce” on the 70th anniversary of Taiwan’s liberation this year, which would have paved the way for political unification with China had the Sunflower movement in March and April last year not “reversed the pro-China trend,” Lai said.
“If not for the Mar. 18 [protests], what events would have taken place between then and now?” Lai asked.
Another panelist, Black Island National Youth Front activist Lai Pin-yu (賴品妤), said she respects the views of KMT military veterans, but their views should not take precedence over that of other Taiwanese ethnic groups, including “Aborigines, recent immigrants and ethnic Taiwanese who were living in Taiwan prior to the KMT’s flight from China.”
“Taiwanese should question the Ma administration’s lavish promotion of ‘Taiwan’s liberation’ as a historical narrative, and its celebration of that perspective as the official position of the government,” she said.
“This event highlights how the KMT-run education system persistently and chronically excluded other cultural values and perspectives from its historical perspectives, and employed crude militarism in an attempt to impose on Taiwanese the narrative of a ‘Liberation in the War of Resistance,’” Lai Pin-yu said.
A NT$39 receipt for two bottles of tea at a FamilyMart was among the NT$10 million (US $312,969) special prize winners in the January-February uniform invoice lottery. FamilyMart said that two NT$10 million-winning receipts were issued at its stores, as well as two NT$2 million grand prizes and three NT$200,000 first prizes. The two NT$10 million receipts were issued at stores in Pingtung County and Yilan County’s Dongshan Township (冬山). One winner spent just NT$39 on two bottles of tea, while another spent NT$80 on water, tea and coffee, the company said. Meanwhile, 7-Eleven reported three NT$10 million winners — in New Taipei
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
ANNUAL EVENT: Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in Daan Park, with an event zone operating from 10am to 6pm This year’s Taipei Floral Picnic is to be held at Daan Park today and tomorrow, featuring an exclusive Pokemon Go event, a themed food market, a coffee rave picnic area and stage performances, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said yesterday. Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in the park as attractions, with an exclusive event zone operating from 10am to 6pm, it said. Participants who complete designated tasks on-site would have a chance to receive limited-edition souvenirs, it added. People could also try the newly launched game Pokemon Pokopia in the trial area, the department said. Three PokeStops are
RSS