A new book on the Kaohsiung Incident claims that a man with an organized crime background was instructed to attack Formosa Magazine’s office in Kaohsiung several times before the incident.
The Kaohsiung Incident, also known as the Formosa Incident, refers to a police crackdown, under the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime, on a rally held by Formosa Magazine and opposition politicians on Dec. 10, 1979, to mark Human Rights Day.
The book on the incident, as well as the events leading up to it and its aftermath, was released on Saturday by Academia Historica and the National Human Rights Museum.
Photo: CNA
It claims that a restaurant owner, who was also known to be a gangster, was directed by the Taiwan Garrison Command to attack the magazine, which had been challenging the-KMT government and calling on it to lift martial law.
Tai Chung-ching (戴崇慶) allegedly carried out the attacks before the incident, but was later targeted by authorities in a national security crackdown, the book says.
Academia Historica president Chen Yi-shen (陳儀深) told a book launch event that Tai’s story reveals the ferocity of the confrontation between the KMT and the opposition ahead of the incident.
The book partly draws information from petitions filed by Tai in March 1983 with the National Security Bureau and the Taiwan Garrison Command to protest his treatment following the incident.
Chen writes in the book’s preface that Tai acted on behalf of the Taiwan Garrison Command, a secret police and national security body that suppressed dissent across Taiwan until its dissolution in August 1992.
Nevertheless, Tai was targeted by the authorities, which led him to file the petitions, Chen wrote.
Tai described himself as a patriot who always worked for the good of the country and society, the book says, citing his petitions.
Chen said the book’s description of the garrison’s operations at the time of the incident serves as an autopsy of the state apparatus during Taiwan’s authoritarian era.
The book’s eight volumes describe the investigations into and monitoring of Formosa Magazine, the arrests and court hearings of political victims, and the government’s actions in the incident’s aftermath, he said.
Chen said he looks forward to the release of historical documents by Academia Historica on other prominent cases, including the murder of democracy advocate Lin I-hsiung’s (林義雄) mother and twin daughters.
On Feb. 28, 1980, an unidentified person broke into Lin’s residence and attacked his mother and seven-year-old twin daughters. Lin was in detention at the time for his involvement in the Kaohsiung Incident, and his wife was visiting him. The case remains unsolved.
Among those arrested during the crackdown were Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), who served as vice president from 2000 to 2008; the magazine’s founder, Huang Hsin-chieh (黃信介), who chaired the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) from 1988 to 1992; and Shih Ming-te (施明德), who chaired the DPP from 1994 to 1996.
Academia Historica previously released a 29-volume document on the 228 Incident, which refers to protesters being shot by security personnel on Feb. 28, 1947, at the Governor-General’s Office in Taipei (now the Executive Yuan).
The protesters were demanding the arrest of those responsible for the indiscriminate killing the previous day of a bystander in an angry crowd outside the Tianma Tea House (天馬茶房) on Nanjing W Road in Taipei.
The events escalated into a series of protests against the KMT regime, resulting in a violent crackdown that left an estimated 5,000 to 28,000 dead.
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