A statue of democracy advocate Ng Chiau-tong (黃昭堂) in Tainan was vandalized on Friday in an apparent retaliation against another act of vandalism targeting a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) in Taipei the same day, the Tainan Police Department said on Saturday.
A statue at National Chengchi University that depicts Chiang on horseback was damaged, with attackers making off with one of the horse’s legs.
National Taiwan University student Hsu Che-jung (許哲榮) later on Friday said that he and some accomplices staged the attack in an effort to remove all symbols of authoritarianism from National Chengchi University campus.
Photo: Liu Wan-chun, Taipei Times
Tainan residents on Saturday morning called the police to report that Ng’s statue and a memorial plaque at Ng Chiau-tong Memorial Park in Cigu District (七股) had been painted red, the department said.
Security camera footage showed two people pouring paint over the statue and the plaque at about 10pm, police said, adding that the department has opened an investigation into the incident.
“Residents of our community are incensed by the damage to public property,” Longshan Borough Warden Wen-tsai (王文財) said.
The Cigu District Office said that it would press charges against the perpetrators and that repair work on the statue and the plaque has started.
Taiwan Radical Wings’ Tainan chapter head Wu Chen-min (吳丞閔) condemned the attack on Ng’s statute as an insult to Taiwanese.
“Chiang and Ng should not be compared,” he said. “Chiang is a murderer responsible for the 228 Incident and the White Terror era, and has directly or indirectly caused millions of deaths.”
Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) said that expressing political views through such confrontational acts is harmful for Taiwanese democracy.
“Ng made life-long contributions to the development of Taiwan’s international status and democracy, which should be worthy of our respect,” he added.
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