Pro-independence groups and political parties in Taipei yesterday conducted a “pledge of allegiance” to form a new nation amid scuffles with police as the protesters denounced the so-called “Taiwan Retrocession Day” at the site where Japan in 1945 formally surrendered Taiwan to Allied Forces at end of World War II.
“The retrocession of Taiwan, with wartime allies passing temporary custody of Taiwan to the Chinese military dictatorship regime of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) was a tragic event for Taiwanese, as it would lead to a fall back to Chinese colonialism and oppression,” said Cheng Tzu-tsai (鄭自才), chairman of Sovereign State for Formosa and the Pescadores Party, the event’s main organizer.
About 300 people gathered in the plaza in front of Zhongshan Hall (中山堂), including members of Cheng’s party, the Free Taiwan Party, the Taiwanese National Party, the Taiwanese National Congress, the From Ethnos to Nation group, the 908 Taiwan Republic Campaign and two other organizations.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Cheng said that he and other groups that advocate independence are united in their push to abolish the Republic of China (ROC) regime, to complete the process of building a sovereign, democratic Taiwan, and to severe links with China.
“We demand that the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] government carry out the terms of the peace treaty at the end of World War II by conducting a self-determination referendum among the residents of Taiwan and Penghu, which was one of the conditions put into the treaty by the victorious Allied forces,” he said.
“It is time for the DPP to discard the ROC political framework and stop equating Taiwan with it, which is a fraudulent claim,” Taiwanese National Party Chairman Tsai Chin-lung (蔡金龍) said. “We need to build a new, democratic Taiwan nation.”
The groups held banners that read “ROC is not our country,” “Taiwan and Penghu are not territories of the ROC” and “Revert to Taiwan and Penghu, establish an independent nation.”
Police officers were involved in brief scuffles after protesters threw water balloons at a plaque.
Zhongshan Hall, which was previously the Taipei Public Auditorium (台北公會堂) after it was completed in 1936, was where then-governor general of Taiwan Rikichi Ando represented the Japanese government in its handing over of Taiwan to the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime, represented by General Chen Yi (陳儀), then-chief of the Taiwan Provincial Administrative Office on Oct. 25, 1945.
The KMT recognizes the day as Taiwan Retrocession Day.
Pro-independence groups say that the Allied forces only handed temporary custody of Taiwan and Penghu to Chiang, with the long-term political status undecided at the time.
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