Several civic groups and pro-independence organizations yesterday gathered outside a police station in Taoyuan to mark the 40th anniversary of the Jhongli Incident (中壢事件), which is considered a watershed event in Taiwan’s democracy movement.
The groups gathered in front of the Jhongli Police Station in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢), waving Taiwanese “national flags” and shouting slogans such as “Unite for Taiwan,” “All hail Taiwanese independence” and “Fight for democracy, justice and human rights.”
Event organizers included Free Taiwan Party Chairman Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴) and Taiwan Independence Reformation Association director Lai Fang-cheng (賴芳徵).
Photo: CNA
“We must not forget what happened at this police station. It was a painful period in history, when Taiwanese were under the brutal dictatorship of the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] regime with its reign of terror and police-state tactics,” Tsay said.
The Jhongli Incident refers to a mass demonstration in 1977 in then-Taoyuan County’s Jhongli against alleged ballot-rigging in the Taoyuan County commissioner election in which former DPP chairman Hsu Hsin-liang (許信良) was a candidate.
“It has been four decades, but unfortunately we Taiwanese still do not have our own nation. Why are we still being ruled by the KMT’s fraudulent ‘Republic of China’ state structure? Why do police still conduct their duties with the KMT’s martial law mentality, working to suppress Taiwanese’s aspirations for freedom?” Lai said.
Photo: CNA
Members of the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan, Taiwan Independence Party and Taiwan Nation-Building Big Banner Squadron also participated in the rally outside the station, which was closed down for renovations.
The groups later headed to Jhongli Arts Hall (中壢藝術館) to take part in a special exhibition and academic conference, where researchers joined political figures for presentations on the historic significance and ramifications of the event.
Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) addressed the conference, promising to launch a plan to build a museum dedicated to preserve the memory of the incident.
“It was the first time Taiwanese stood up with courage and challenged the KMT’s oppressive rule. Because they wanted free elections and democracy, the people overcame their fear and gathered to stand up against the transgressions of the state apparatus,” Cheng said.
“The incident was a watershed moment for Taiwan’s democracy movement, where opposition to the KMT started to become better organized, to engage the public more effectively and to collaborate on election campaigns,” Cheng added.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
RSS