As she mourned the passing of her father-in-law yesterday, Chen Yun-ing (陳雲英) shed tears of both grief for the departed and of pity for her husband and the division of loyalties that, she seemed to imply, had prompted him to defect to China.
Chen, the wife of defector Justin Lin (林毅夫), told reporters after the funeral, "I am a Taiwanese as well as a Fujianese. I love Taiwan as well as mainland China."
"Only my generation, currently around 40 years of age, could understand my feeling of rootlessness," she said. "Young people in Taiwan might not feel the same way I do."
PHOTO: YU MING-CHIN, TAIPEI TIMES
Chen, dressed in the traditional funerary sack cloth, paid her respects on bended knee during the funeral ceremony that preceded the elder Lin's burial yesterday morning, and wept as she did so.
She later told reporters that she regretted that her husband had been unable to attend the ceremony.
After the burial, Chen answered questions from reporters. She said, "The cross-strait political problems bothered me since I was little." She said that when she was in elementary school, her teacher asked her class to find out where their families were from. She and her father established that their ancestors were from China's Fujian Province and she came to regard herself as both Taiwanese and Fujianese.
Chen said she still appreciated the government's allowing her to return to Taiwan to attend her father-in-law's funeral.
In response to remarks by Minister of National Defense Tang Yao-ming (湯曜明), she said that individuals are entitled to their own positions but, "as minister of defense, Tang has no choice but to make remarks like that."
Tang condemned Lin as "an ungrateful man whose betrayal of the country is inexcusable," in the Legislative Yuan on Monday.
"I hope that now that there has been extensive discussion, the public will realize the truth, and absolve my husband of any wrongdoing," she said.
On the subject of compensation paid to Lin's family after he was listed as "missing" following his defection in 1979, Chen said that the family will return it to the military. But she stressed that she "took the money because the government asked me to do so."
Meanwhile, Justin Lin set up an altar in Beijing yesterday and paid his respects to his father at the same time as the rest of his family in Ilan County.
During an interview with a Taiwanese reporter in Beijing, he said that he regretted not being able to attend his father's funeral.
He added that he hoped the turmoil that he had caused in Taiwan would end with his father's funeral.
In response to criticism from his former colleagues and friends in Taiwan, he said. "This is my personal tragedy. It has nothing to do with treason."
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS