President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that Taiwanese society had endured decades of harsh martial law and that such “historic mistakes” should never be repeated.
“Taiwan had 38 years of martial law rule, during which its social and economic [development] ... was greatly impacted, and such harm has continued to affect today’s society,” Lai said, referring to the Martial Law period from 1949 to 1987.
The imposition of martial law — the second-longest ever imposed by a regime in history — largely coincided with the White Terror, an era of political repression in Taiwan by the one-party state Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government from 1949 to 1992.
Photo: CNA
We must “learn from the lessons” and “must never repeat the historic mistakes,” Lai said at an event at the Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial Park (景美白色恐佈紀念園區) in New Taipei City marking International Human Rights Day, which is observed annually on Dec. 10.
He pledged to continue promoting transitional justice, focusing on restoring the truth about past state wrongdoing and “help[ing] the public understand the nature of authoritarian rule.”
Upholding democracy, freedom and human rights has allowed Taiwan to build connections with other countries, he said, adding that “we must unite ourselves and collaborate to preserve” these values.
Lai’s remarks came days after a social media post by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus was accused of sympathizing with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s imposition of emergency martial law on Tuesday night.
The post repeated some of Yoon’s accusations and justifications behind the declaration, which sent shockwaves through South Korea and the world, including allegations that the South Korean parliament had been “manipulated by North Korean forces.”
The DPP post was deleted about 20 minutes after it was published and was replaced with another saying the previous one “only shared international information and compared it with the domestic political situation, and [the post] absolutely did not mean support for martial law.”
The KMT has criticized the statement and called on Lai, who chairs the DPP, to apologize and clarify his position.
However, the KMT also got into hot water when KMT Legislator Sra Kacaw in the legislature on Friday said that the KMT’s imposition of martial law in 1949 was meant to “protect Taiwan” from possible attacks by Chinese Communist Party forces.
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have declared they survived recall votes to remove them from office today, although official results are still pending as the vote counting continues. Although final tallies from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are still pending, preliminary results indicate that the recall campaigns against all seven KMT lawmakers have fallen short. As of 6:10 pm, Taichung Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Hsinchu County Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), Nantou County Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and New Taipei City Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) had all announced they
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as the chipmaker prepares for volume production of Nvidia’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips. It was Huang’s third trip to Taiwan this year, indicating that Nvidia’s supply chain is deeply connected to Taiwan. Its partners also include packager Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and server makers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達). “My main purpose is to visit TSMC,” Huang said yesterday. “As you know, we have next-generation architecture called Rubin. Rubin is very advanced. We have now taped out six brand new
RSS