Democracy should not be used against democracy, President William Lai (賴清德) said during a visit to the national archives on Commemoration Day of the Lifting of Martial Law yesterday.
Lai and Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) visited the National Archives Administration and its reading center to review declassified records from the 228 Incident and the Martial Law era, including documents promulgated by the then-government under the National Security Act During the Period of National Mobilization for Suppression of the Communist Rebellion.
Lai said that as Tainan mayor in 2014, he observed the anniversary of the death of Tang Te-chang (湯德章), a martyr of democracy in the 228 Incident, on Tainan’s Justice and Courage Memorial Day.
Photo: CNA
The archives are a record of the authoritarian government persecuting Taiwanese and also the legacies of those affected during the struggle for democracy, he said.
The archives should appeal to the public to visit, so they could understand that the nation’s democracy would not have existed without the sacrifices made by tens of thousands of their predecessors, he added.
Lai said the martial arts novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes (射鵰英雄傳) written by late novelist Jin Yong (金庸) is one of his favorite books and it was banned during the Martial Law era.
The novel was prohibited as the government did not want Taiwanese reading stories about gallant people rising up against corruption, agency research fellow Hsu Feng-yuan (許峰源) said, adding that censorship adversely affected people’s lives.
The declassification rate of the archives has reached 99.96 percent with only 26 documents still classified, while information originally approved for permanent classification that has yet to be transferred amounts to 4,556 documents from eight cases, National Archives Administration Director-General Lin Chiu-yen (林秋燕) said in her briefing.
The agency has requested a review of the declassification and downgrading of classified records by Aug. 27, she added.
Records deemed to contain national security information should be declassified after a maximum of 40 years, with only three exceptions — if declassification could imperil intelligence agents who have collected information against China, could seriously impact national security or external relations, or could jeopardize intelligence collection against China, Lin said.
Extension to the classification period of these exceptions must be submitted to a national security meeting for approval with a maximum of three years for each extension, she said.
Cho in his speech said that Taiwan has built a democratic system after the world’s second-longest martial law of the modern era.
Declassification of the records is so the nation can be honest with historical facts and be accountable to those affected and their families, he said.
To remember history is not to remember hatred, but to prevent history from repeating itself, Cho said, citing prestigious Czech novelist Milan Kundera: “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”
Separately, the military honor guards performed their first guard mounting at Democracy Boulevard in Taipei yesterday, after ceasing their 44-year sentry duty at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall at 5pm on Sunday.
The Ministry of Culture said the sentries were removed to fulfill transitional justice.
MAKING WAVES: China’s maritime militia could become a nontraditional threat in war, clogging up shipping lanes to prevent US or Japanese intervention, a report said About 1,900 Chinese ships flying flags of convenience and fishing vessels that participated in China’s military exercises around Taiwan last month and in January last year have been listed for monitoring, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said yesterday. Following amendments to the Commercial Port Act (商港法) and the Law of Ships (船舶法) last month, the CGA can designate possible berthing areas or deny ports of call for vessels suspected of loitering around areas where undersea cables can be accessed, Oceans Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. The list of suspected ships, originally 300, had risen to about
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
Japan’s strategic alliance with the US would collapse if Tokyo were to turn away from a conflict in Taiwan, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday, but distanced herself from previous comments that suggested a possible military response in such an event. Takaichi expressed her latest views on a nationally broadcast TV program late on Monday, where an opposition party leader criticized her for igniting tensions with China with the earlier remarks. Ties between Japan and China have sunk to the worst level in years after Takaichi said in November that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could bring about a Japanese
The WHO ignored early COVID-19 warnings from Taiwan, US Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill said on Friday, as part of justification for Washington withdrawing from the global health body. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said that the US was pulling out of the UN agency, as it failed to fulfill its responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The WHO “ignored early COVID warnings from Taiwan in 2019 by pretending Taiwan did not exist, O’Neill wrote on X on Friday, Taiwan time. “It ignored rigorous science and promoted lockdowns.” The US will “continue international coordination on infectious
RSS