Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said yesterday that the Tiananmen Square Massacre, “temporarily obstructed the forward march of [China] mainland,” but that nation then “came back to the path of reform and opening-up after a short while due to the unstoppable trend of modernization for the zhonghua minzu [Chinese nation].”
In a Facebook post concerning the June 4, 1989, massacre, Hung said that every year on the anniversary of the incident she gets a “special feeling.”
“This incident is certainly a mishap and a tragedy. From a long-term historical perspective, 6/4 did temporarily obstruct the mainland’s advance, but since the modernization of the zhonghua minzu is an unstoppable trend, the mainland returned once again to the road of reform and opening up... and has grown rapidly in the past 20 years,” Hung said.
Hung wrote that although she is “not particularly in sync with many of my mainland friends,” her view is that those who participated in the event “contributed greatly to what [China] has achieved with reform and opening up.”
“Regardless of the differences in the views we might have of them, they all reflected a kind of astuteness of the time and a willingness to actively participate in the event. I think it is exactly this willingness that has made Chinese society quickly swing back to the right track of openness,” she wrote.
“Just think about it. Are the calls for democracy and rule of law made by those elites who participated in the June 4 event not exactly what [China] is now heading toward?” she wrote.
Hung also related the KMT to the idea of the Chinese nation.
“Putting aside the clashes in the past [between the Chinese Communist Party and the KMT], is the effort the KMT has made in Taiwan not also aimed at finding a better way to democracy and liberty for the children of zhonghua minzu?”
She called for a life full of “tolerance” and “respect” for all “Chinese children.”
“We have seen that the societies on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are walking toward this ideal. Since [China] has shown — different from before — its ability to be tolerant, could it then consider granting a more tolerant handling of this historical wound?” Hung wrote.
Former KMT spokesperson Yang Wei-chung (楊偉中) said “fury” is the only emotion he felt after reading Hung’s post.
He accused Hung of writing the post “with the tone of a lackey” who “begs for tolerance from the oppressor and the dictator.”
Yang also lambasted Hung for her “distorted understanding” of the historical connection between the crackdown and reform, claiming that hope for real, comprehensive reforms had all but been destroyed by the incident.
“So in Hung’s mind, China is now on the path to democracy and rule of law under communist rule —— so the only problem remaining for Hung is to have the rulers ‘tolerate’ those June 4 elites for them to ‘participate’ and to have the chance to ‘sacrifice’ themselves in order to contribute to the Chinese nation,” Yang said.
“In the end, this is how a belief in historical truth and universal values is being trumped by Hung’s nationalistic longing as one of the ‘Chinese children,’” Yang said.
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
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
RSS