Responding to a series of recent protests targeting statues of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) yesterday said there would not have been a 228 Incident and, therefore, a chance for those pretending to be family members of victims to “feign tears” if it were not for Chiang.
Chiang statues have been defaced by graffiti, egg-throwing and even head-chopping over the past few days. Although such acts have occurred for years, they have apparently intensified over the week that culminated with the 228 Peace Memorial Day holiday on Saturday.
Tsai, who just survived a recall vote on Feb. 14, posted a note on Facebook titled: “The historical paradox concerning Chiang Kai-shek.”
“It seems that Feb. 28 is a day on which a bunch of people show their hatred against Chiang, whose statues have been graffitied and disposed of,” Tsai said. “But the paradoxical historical truth is that, if Taiwan had not been influenced by Chiang Kai-shek, there would not be a chance to even mention the 228 Incident.”
Without Chiang, Taiwan would have been part of the People’s Republic of China, and “‘one country, two systems’ would have been a non-starter,” Tsai said.
He then listed figures and events that “would not have occured,” including former presidents Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) and Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), the KMT, the Democratic Progressive Party, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the Sunflower movement. Those would have been replaced by Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) Great Leap Forward, the Great Hunger, the Cultural Revolution and its Red Guards, and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) Chinese Dream, he added.
Had Chiang Kai-shek and his forces been annihilated by Mao, “whether the family members of the real 228 Massacre victims would have the chance to emerge would be a mystery, but what is certain is that the family members of fake 228 Incident victims would definitely not have had the chance to feign their tears as they did [on Saturday].”
Many have speculated that Tsai was referring to Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who wiped away tears several times when talking about his grandfather, a victim of the incident, during an emotional speech at a memorial ceremony on Saturday.
Upon hearing about Tsai’s remarks, Ko said that people should not further provoke each other.
Meanwhile, the KMT Zhongshan-Datong district office slammed Ko’s apparent refusal to shake hands with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) at the 228 ceremony as impolite on Facebook yesterday morning, but deleted the post hours later.
“For what reason did Ko refuse to shake hands with Ma twice while asking people to let go of hatred?” the office said. “Or is he going to again attribute [the impoliteness] to Asperger’s?”
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