Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳) yesterday demanded that the Ministry of National Defense “make great changes” over the posting of army units to guard the tombs of former presidents Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), calling on the ministry to turn the task over to the Taoyuan City Government or the Ministry of Transportation and Communication.
At a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, Liu claimed that such practices were anachronistic and not in accordance with the government’s pursuit of transitional justice.
Liu questioned why the nation was spending resources to “guard two dead men.”
Minister of National Defense Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) said the former presidents had made great contributions to the nation’s stability and security, and that the nation’s heritage should be preserved.
Liu dismissed Feng’s statement that governmental agencies related to tourism would not be able to create the same atmosphere of solemnity and respect that well-trained military honor guards can, saying that whether or not such tombs should be held in such high esteem depended on the person’s contribution to the nation.
Feng said the defense ministry would give careful consideration to the legislator’s demands and did not object when Liu said that she would give it one month to make a decision.
Liu later extended the time for consideration and negotiations with other governmental departments to a period of two months.
Chiang Kai-shek’s coffin is in a tomb in Taoyuan’s Tzuhu District (慈湖), while Chiang Ching-kuo was laid to rest in a tomb in Dasi District (大溪), 2km away.
Both coffins were not interred due to the wishes of the Chiangs to be buried in Nanjing, after China is restored to the Republic of China.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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