The Chinese government should promote freedom and democracy at home before trying to commemorate the 228 Incident, 228 Memorial Foundation chairman Hsueh Hua-yuan (薛化元) said.
Huseh made the remarks on Wednesday last week in response to plans by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office to commemorate the 228 Incident’s 70th anniversary this year.
The 228 Incident refers to a massacre by the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime that began on Feb. 28, 1947, when soldiers in Taipei opened fired on people demonstrating against the death of a civilian during a crackdown on unlicensed vendors by a Tobacco and Alcohol Monopoly Bureau agent.
The Incident triggered an nationwide insurgency against the government, which responded by ordering a military crackdown that killed between 10,000 and 30,000 people, many of whom were local elites, and imposed Martial Law from 1949 to 1989, which marked the White Terror period.
The official commemoration of the Incident by the Taiwanese and Chinese governments has become common, but the official narratives of the massacre diverge, Hsueh said.
Former Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Li Weiyi (李維一) said on the 60th anniversary of the Incident that it was a part of the “revolutionary struggle” of Chinese and called the Taiwanese commemoration events “distortions of historical fact by the Taiwanese independence faction,” Hsueh said.
The number of Chinese Communist Party members who participated in the 228 Incident was limited and they played no crucial role in the events, Hsueh added.
“The 228 Incident marks the Taiwanese struggle for autonomy and resistance to an oppressive regime, and the Chinese government should develop freedom and democracy before trying to commemorate it,” Hsueh said.
Some Taiwanese activists, such as Hsieh Hsueh-hung (謝雪紅), who resisted the KMT, later sought refuge in China and were persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party for supporting Taiwanese autonomy, he added.
“What is left for China to commemorate about the Incident?” Hsueh asked.
Huang Hsiu-wan (黃秀婉), 228 victim Ong Thiam-teng’s (王添燈) granddaughter, said she had been contacted by the Chinese government to discuss commemorating the massacre, but little came out of the talks.
“The spirit of 228 was fighting for democracy and China is a dictatorship; the Chinese officials told me in private that working around it was just too difficult,” Huang said.
Meanwhile, Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺), commenting on the activities reportedly organized by Beijing to commemorate the Incident, on Thursday said that the key to commemorating the Incident is to remember that the real masters of the nation are the people, while the state should be built on a foundation of liberal democracy.
A government that recognizes this would not subject its people to violence, he added.
Beijing should objectively adhere to historical fact relating to the Incident and perhaps then it would better appreciate Taiwan’s determination to seek justice and belief that events “can be forgiven, but not forgotten,” Mainland Affairs Council deputy head Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said.
By reflecting on Beijing’s commemoration of the Incident it is hoped that Taipei and Beijing will come to a better understanding of each other through normal interaction, he said.
Additional Reporting by CNA
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