As the nation prepares to mark the 71st anniversary of the 228 Incident next week, 228 Memorial Foundation president Hsueh Hua-yuan (薛化元) yesterday urged the government to step up its efforts to declassify political archives, redress the injustices committed during the authoritarian era and remove remnants of the dictatorial era.
The 228 Incident refers to an uprising that began on Feb. 27, 1947, and was violently suppressed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government. The Incident marked the beginning of the White Terror era.
In light of the passage of the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例) in December last year, transitional justice is the focus of this year’s 228 anniversary, Hsueh said, adding that such efforts should not be confined to Feb. 28.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
The commemorative event for this year is to be held at the 228 Peace Memorial Park at 2:30pm on Wednesday. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is scheduled to give a talk and give the families of victims certificates attesting to their innocence.
The Gongsheng Music Festival is to take place from 4pm to 9:30pm. The festival began as a student-led event aimed at raising youth awareness about the 228 Incident and is marking its sixth year.
Festival convener Hsu Hsiang-pi (徐祥弼) said the theme for this year — John Does — refers to the judges, military officials and police involved in the incident who have not been identified.
“We hope to raise awareness about the 228 Incident and come to understand the Incident from different angles. In this case from the perspective of the oppressors,” Hsu said.
Turning to transitional justice, Hsueh pledged the foundation’s support in investigations that would be launched after a nine-member independent transitional justice promotion committee is established in accordance with the act.
Hsueh said the foundation would also include names of newly discovered victims in its files and continue its efforts to restore historical truths.
After cross-checking names in the declassified documents from the former Secrecy Bureau, Hsueh said the foundation has identified another 931 victims in the Incident.
Taiwan 228 Incident Care Association director-general Pan Hsin-hsing (潘信行) said he was glad to see the passage of the act during his lifetime, urging the KMT to likewise declassify and publicize its political archives.
“How can the families of the victims ask for settlement without the truth?” Pan asked.
Investigations into who was responsible for the 228 Incident have all pointed to former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), Pan said, but to this day Chiang is still worshipped as a “false god” with the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.
The families do not want vengeance, but they ask that justice be implemented in Taiwan, Pan said.
All artifacts or buildings pertaining to the authoritarian regime of Chiang should be removed, Pan said.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Taiwan was listed in 14th place among the world's wealthiest country in terms of GDP per capita, in the latest rankings released on Monday by Forbes magazine. Taiwan's GDP per capita was US$76,860, which put it at No. 14 on the list of the World's 100 Richest Countries this year, one spot above Hong Kong with US$75,130. The magazine's list of the richest countries in the world is compiled based on GDP per capita data, as estimated by the IMF. However, for a more precise measure of a nation's wealth, the magazine also considers purchasing power parity, which is a metric used to
RSS