President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday stressed the importance of transitional justice, saying that it is the most important step following the democratization of Taiwan.
It is important the nation gets transitional justice right, Tsai said at an event hosted by the Deng Liberty Foundation at Chinpaoshan Cemetery (金寶山) in New Taipei City to commemorate democracy activist Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕).
“While the world already associates Taiwan with democracy, there is one missing element, namely achieving transitional justice,” she added.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
“The process — which is rooted in uncovering the truth, taking responsibility and social reconciliation — is one her administration has long championed,” she added.
The Legislative Yuan passed the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例) in December last year. It requires the government to set up a committee to implement transitional justice measures.
The first thing the transitional justice promotion committee would do once established is research what happened when the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime governed the nation under martial law from 1945 until 1992, Tsai said.
The appointed committee nominees are to undergo legislative review before their confirmation.
The committee measures up to the transitional justice teams of other nations, Tsai said, adding that she looks forward to lawmakers’ support of its members.
“Whether Taiwan could be a democratic nation was something Deng cared about deeply,” Tsai said, adding that he would likely find it comforting knowing that Taiwan was ranked among the world’s “free” nations this year in Freedom House’s annual report, in which Taiwan garnered an aggregate score of 93 out of 100, up two points from last year.
On April 7, 1989, Deng, then editor-in-chief of Freedom Era Weekly (自由時代週刊), set himself alight as heavily armed police attempted to break into his office following 71 days of self-imposed isolation after he was charged with sedition for the stance his magazine took against the government after it published a draft Taiwan Republic Constitution in 1988.
In 2016, the Executive Yuan declared April 7 Freedom of Expression Day to commemorate Deng’s death.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
OBJECTS AT SEA: Satellites with synthetic-aperture radar could aid in the detection of small Chinese boats attempting to illegally enter Taiwan, the space agency head said Taiwan aims to send the nation’s first low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite into space in 2027, while the first Formosat-8 and Formosat-9 spacecraft are to be launched in October and 2028 respectively, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council laid out its space development plan in a report reviewed by members of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee. Six LEO satellites would be produced in the initial phase, with the first one, the B5G-1A, scheduled to be launched in 2027, the council said in the report. Regarding the second satellite, the B5G-1B, the government plans to work with private contractors