Iconic democracy pioneer and Christian minister the Reverend Kao Chun-ming (高俊明), 89, passed away yesterday at 5:25pm, the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan said.
Kao, a life-long Taiwan independence advocate, was known for helping Shih Ming-te (施明德) give the authorities the slip, after Shih became a fugitive because of his involvement in the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident during the White Terror era.
Arrested in April 1980, Kao was sentenced to seven years in prison, but later served as an adviser to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Presidential Office spokesperson Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said in a statement yesterday President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) mourned Kao’s death and that the nation had lost a great man.
“Kao was a guiding light for Taiwanese democracy and his courage will be remembered forever, as the bush that burned and was not consumed,” Chang said.
Kao was born in 1929. His grandfather Kao Chang (高長) was the nation’s first Presbyterian convert and a follower of medical doctor and missionary James L. Maxwell Sr.
In an interview with the Chinese Christian Tribune, Kao Chun-ming said he was a willful child who hated going to church and studying.
He came to appreciate his circumstances and the importance of intellectual pursuits only after attending night school in Japan, where students from less fortunate backgrounds worked to earn a living by day and studied by night, Kao Chun-ming said.
Witnessing the carnage after the allied forces bombed Japan in World War II, he experienced a spiritual awakening and decided to attend a seminary, Kao Chun-ming said.
Kao Chun-ming served as the principle of Yushan Theological College and Seminiary from 1957 to 1970.
In 2012, then-Tainan mayor William Lai (賴清德) visited him at his residence and presented him with a commendation that honored him as a “Taiwanese of high character.”
Last month, Kao Chun-ming cosigned a public letter asking Tsai not to seek re-election next year, citing the electoral drubbing that the Democratic Progressive Party received in November last year.
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
RSS