As part of the government’s efforts to promote transitional justice, the Executive Yuan has finished a review of a draft political archives bill, which, if passed, would serve as the legal basis for the government to collect political files dating to the 228 Incident and the White Terror era, including those in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) archives, sources said.
The bill is expected to be approved by the Executive Yuan soon and has been prioritized for review by the Legislative Yuan in the current legislative session, sources added.
An official with knowledge of the matter who requested anonymity said that the proposed bill includes punishments for political parties if they refuse to turn in files relating to the 228 Incident or the ensuing White Terror era.
The KMT has voiced its strong opposition to the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例), which was passed on Dec. 5 last year, over a rule that gives the government the right to seize political files held by political parties and their affiliates.
The draft bill proposes imposing a fine of between NT$1 million and NT$5 million (US$33,866 and US$169,331) on political parties or their affiliates that refuse to transfer the files to the government, the official said, adding that they could be repeatedly fined if they persist in ignoring the government’s request.
An intergovernmental review on March 20 led by National Development Council Minister Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶), Minister Without Portfolio Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) and National Archives Administration Director-General Lin Chiu-yen (林秋燕) saw the bill undergo a minor rewording.
According to the proposed bill, political files include any file or document from Aug. 15, 1945, to Nov. 6, 1992, relating to the 228 Incident, the Martial Law period and the Period of National Mobilization for Suppression of the Communist Rebellion that is held by a government agency, political party, their affiliate or the business they operate.
Concerned agencies are to finish collecting, classifying and forwarding political files to the National Archives Administration within six months, the proposed bill says, adding that, if necessary, the preparation time may be extended to, but must not exceed, 12 months.
It proposes that the government be given the authority to request political files kept in the custody of the Ministry of National Defense and the Investigation Bureau.
The proposed bill is positioned as a “special archives act” with an aim to collate, preserve and apply political files for educational and research purposes, considering that the period during which the mission to pursue transitional justice lasts is finite, but there should not be a time limit on the disclosure of political files, sources 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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching