A Changhua County councilor and nuns yesterday urged the county government to tear down a former Buddhist temple that was converted into a shrine to Chinese communism by businessman Wei Ming-jen (魏明仁).
Wei, a retired military officer, acquired the temple in Ershuei Township (二水) seven years ago, and put up People’s Republic of China flags.
On Saturday he vowed to erect a statue of Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), saying the day the statue was completed would be the day China is unified with Taiwan.
Wei kicked out the nuns who resided at the temple and replaced Buddhist statues with images of Mao, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and other icons, Changhua County Councilor Hsu Shu-wei (許書維) said.
Hsu said the main hall is an illegal structure, as its construction contravened the Act for the Utilization and Transfer of Reserved Mountainous Land (山坡地保育利用條例), adding that the county government has delayed demolishing it by claiming not to have the money.
The nuns said Wei has trampled the dignity of Taiwanese.
The county has not acted because a lawsuit between Wei and the nuns is still in the courts, Changhua Civil Affairs Department Director Tu Kuo-chung (杜國忠) said.
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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