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.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS