When a memorial to Chen Wen-chen (陳文成) at National Taiwan University (NTU) was dedicated in February after a decade of campaigning, many were surprised that the plaque was made of polystyrene foam. The placeholder, which was removed after three days, read: “In memoriam of a hero who unyieldingly resisted state violence.”
Apparently, many of the decisionmakers at the university disagreed with the phrase “state violence,” so no text has been displayed for the past few months, which is a shame given NTU’s colorful history and what Taiwanese endured to achieve its free and democratic environment.
On Saturday, NTU finally approved the text after student representatives brought the issue to an online vote, winning 74 to 64.
Some professors who voted against the text cited the need to “maintain tranquility on campus” — an egregious statement, as more people in Taiwan should learn about the atrocities that the previous authoritarian regime has committed.
Tranquility is achieved by acknowledging history and reaching an understanding, not by ignoring issues.
Chen, an assistant professor of mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was visiting family in Taiwan when he was found dead near a library at NTU on July 3, 1981.
The state ruled it a suicide, and although the facts are not entirely clear, evidence indicates that he was killed and thrown off the building, possibly by state security from the Taiwan Garrison Command, the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government’s main instrument for its nearly four-decade-long reign of White Terror. Chen was detained and interrogated the night before his body was found.
The authorities claimed that Chen killed himself out of guilt for his “crimes” — ie, supporting Taiwan’s democracy movement. He was reportedly marked for donating money to Formosa Magazine, a major opposition publication that was the flashpoint of the Kaohsiung Incident two years earlier.
Chen was reportedly followed and harassed following his return, and even blocked from returning to the US on schedule.
Even if he were not killed by authorities, what he and countless others who opposed authoritarian rule endured was most definitely state violence. Even though the evidence is not clear on what happened to Chen, so many others were executed, incarcerated or simply “disappeared” that there is nothing controversial about the phrase “state violence.”
Yet, decades after martial law was lifted, it still took a lot of work by the Chen Wen-chen Memorial Foundation and students to get the memorial built. In 2019, the university even rescinded its offer to fund half of the memorial on the grounds that it is a sensitive political topic. In addition, NTU reportedly tried to keep the dedication ceremony as low-key as possible.
Even though university campuses were a major part of the government’s propaganda activities, students at NTU have long been on the forefront of fighting for the nation’s democracy. State violence against its students was committed as early as 1949 during the April 6 Incident, and in 1986 its students launched Taiwan’s first major campus movement calling for freedom of speech and direct representative elections.
Given this history, NTU should embrace the role its students played in democratization instead of hampering their efforts.
Fortunately, the text was approved, otherwise the blank space would have continued to be an insult to those who fought against state violence.
KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) recent visit to Beijing and her upcoming visit to Washington will serve as a high-level test of her diplomatic mettle. In Beijing, Cheng was received with symbolic gestures, a warm reception, and high-level access. In Washington, she will receive far less pomp and far sharper questions about the KMT’s vision for the future of Taiwan. Her challenge will be to persuade Washington that the KMT’s engagement with China can coexist with strong deterrence. Cheng’s April 7-12 visit to mainland China coincided with an intense period of conflict in Iran. Despite the strategic significance of Cheng’s trip,
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent the vast Asian chemicals industry into a tailspin. Deprived of the likes of Qatari natural gas and Saudi Arabian oil, the region’s fertilizer and plastics plants are slowing production or even shutting down. Everywhere except China, that is. In petrochemicals, China is unique. As well as a traditional industry that uses oil and gas as feedstock, it has parallel output that relies on its abundant domestic coal. Unsurprisingly, India and other regional powers want to copy and paste the Chinese method. This would not be easy — or climate friendly. The
US President Donald Trump recently repeated his claim that “Taiwan stole America’s chip industry,” reigniting public debate on the issue. As a former Taiwanese minister of economic affairs and an entrepreneur deeply involved in semiconductor supply chain development, I feel a responsibility to clarify this misunderstanding. From the perspective of global industrial evolution and the economic principle of comparative advantage, such a statement appears overly simplistic and risks obscuring the essence of the issue. The rise of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry was not built on “replacing America,” but rather emerged as a result of countries pursuing different development paths within the
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto says he knows how to fix the problems facing Indonesia. Yet his economic mismanagement and authoritarian tendencies are steering the nation toward a familiar mix of currency instability and political chaos. The world’s fourth-most populous nation risks reversing the hard-won democratic and business reforms that came after the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. At that time, the rupiah collapsed and the political upheaval that followed forced former president Haji Mohamed Suharto from power. Prabowo’s administration is ignoring similar warning signs. That disconnect was apparent in a national address on Wednesday, when Prabowo projected the swagger that has
RSS