Former New Taipei City deputy mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) was on Thursday criticized by the Nylon Cheng Liberty Foundation over comments he made about his involvement in an incident in 1989 which led to democracy activist Deng Nan-jung’s (鄭南榕) self-immolation.
Hou was clearly avoiding taking any responsibility because of his participation in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) New Taipei City mayoral primary, the foundation said in a statement in response to remarks Hou made in an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) that he was only following orders when he led a group of police officers who surrounded and attempted to enter Deng’s office at Freedom Era Weekly (自由時代) magazine in January 1989.
Deng was charged with sedition for publishing a draft “Taiwan Republic Constitution” in his magazine.
On April 7, 1989, the 71st day of his self-imprisonment at the magazine, Deng set himself on fire.
At the time Hou was head of the Taipei Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division.
In the interview Hou said that, apart from attempting to make a warranted arrest, the police’s mission was also about saving a life, adding that it was “not completely successful.”
Deng had publicly declared at the time that “the KMT will only take my body; they will never take me alive,” the foundation said, adding that Hou should have understood that clear message.
“Former Nazi SS member Oskar Groening never personally killed anyone, but in 2015, at the age of 94, he was convicted of being an accessory to the murder of 300,000 people and sentenced to four years in prison for his involvement in the genocide at the Auschwitz concentration camp,” the foundation said.
Hou’s claim that he was trying to “save a life” is hypocritical and is an attempt to cover up the truth, the foundation added.
“Avoiding the truth of the past is a secondary injury,” Deng Nan-jung’s daughter, Deng Chu-mei (鄭竹梅), said in a statement issued by the foundation in response to Hou’s comments.
As potential a candidate for a mayoral position, [Hou] should explain in detail his philosophy about the past so that it can be assessed by voters, Deng Chu-mei said.
Hou should not use upsetting Deng Nan-jung’s family as an excuse to avoid talking about it, she added.
When asked about the foundation and Deng Chu-mei’s response, Hou said he understands, embraces and respects the opinions of Deng Nan-jung’s family.
Additional reporting by Yeh Kuan-yu
SPEEDING ELETRIC VEHICLES: Available without license requirements, the low-cost vehicles, especially if illicitly modified, can often reach a dangerous speed The government should crack down on illegal electric bicycles and scooters, the non-profit Consumers’ Foundation said on Friday, citing research on the potentially dangerous speed of the vehicles. Electric bicycles and lightweight electric scooters have gained popularity as they do not require registration and riders do not need licenses, the foundation said, adding that as many as 40 percent of them can reach speeds exceeding the legal limit of 25kph for non-licensed two-wheelers. Some consumers also purchased legal electric vehicles and modified them to reach higher speeds, it said. “If the government does not step up efforts to confiscate these
‘RELIABLE PARTNER’: US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar praised the ‘Taiwan model,’ saying that the nation brought its spirit to its COVID-19 response The first memorandum of understanding (MOU) on health cooperation between the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the US Department of Health and Human Services was yesterday signed at the Centers for Disease Control in Taipei. The memorandum was signed between the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US, by AIT Director Brent Christensen and Taiwan Council for US Affairs Chairperson Jen-ni Yang (楊珍妮). US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) witnessed the signing of the memorandum, designed to enhance the nations’
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday tweeted a welcome to Somaliland’s first representative to Taiwan, Mohamed Omar Hagi Mohamoud, who arrived on Friday. Mohamoud had “braved Chinese pressure” to take up his new post, Wu wrote. “The fact ‘sovereignty & friendship aren’t for sale’ deserves international recognition,” referring to a Somaliland media report earlier this month that Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi had rejected an offer by the Chinese government in exchange for ending its rapprochement with Taiwan. Wu also thanked the US National Security Council (NSC) for praising Taiwan-Somaliland ties. A council tweet on July 10 praised Taiwan
The US on Thursday removed a warning against all international travel, and placed Taiwan on a list of 13 destinations where the risk of COVID-19 transmission is “very low.” The list was compiled almost five months after the US Department of State issued a “global level 4 health advisory,” urging US citizens to avoid all international travel. On Thursday, the department announced that it was lifting the advisory, saying that “with health and safety conditions improving in some countries and potentially deteriorating in others, the Department is returning to our previous system of country-specific levels of travel advice.” The US
RSS