The military should distance itself from its Whampoa Military Academy roots and create a culture that is uniquely local, the Taiwan Statebuilding Party said yesterday.
The comments came after groups of retired soldiers recently mobilized former Whampoa members to attend the 99th anniversary of the academy’s founding in China.
The Whampoa Military Academy, founded by Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) in 1924, was a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) military academy before it was converted to a national academy in 1927. It was renamed the Republic of China Military Academy in 1946, symbolizing the nationalization of the army.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
At an event in Kaohsiung’s Fongshan District (鳳山), the party said there had been about 222 incidents involving selling information or spying for the Chinese Communist Party (CPP) between 2015 and 2020, many of which were conducted by retired military personnel calling in previous contacts in the military.
The party’s Chiayi chapter director Weng Huan-yao (翁渙瑤) said he was a student at the Republic of China Military Academy, and said that he was “baffled” by how everything about the academy, based in Kaohsiung, referenced Whampoa in Guangzhou, China.
Weng said many of his seniors had been seen at events hosted by China, making him question whether this was the “Whampoa spirit,” adding that he felt that the military should “liberate [itself] from Whampoa, and leave it in China.”
The Whampoa academy was funded by the former USSR, and was the product of the first collaboration between the KMT and the CCP from 1923 to 1927, the party’s Taipei chapter director Wu Hsin-tai (吳欣岱) said.
After the Nationalist-Communist split, the CCP continued to refer to the “spirit of Whampoa,” subverting the national identity of the Taiwanese military, Wu said, adding that the military should ditch “Whampoa” and create an army that belongs to Taiwan.
Historically, Whampoa has no ties with Taiwan, and the pro-China rhetoric of the “Whampoa spirit” easily creates cognitive dissonance among troops, party Chairman Wang Hsing-huan (王興煥) said.
Wang urged the military to distance itself from its Whampoa past, to remove references to the academy, to focus on the history of military academies in Taiwan and use local names for divisions.
The military must have a “Taiwan spirit” and enhance values such as duty, honor and loyalty to the country, Wang said.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
MORE NEEDED: Recall drives against legislators in Miaoli’s two districts and Hsinchu’s second district were still a few thousand signatures short of the second-stage threshold Campaigners aiming to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday said they expect success in 30 out of 35 districts where drives have passed the second-stage threshold, which would mark a record number of recall votes held at once. Hsinchu County recall campaigners yesterday announced that they reached the second-stage threshold in the recall effort against Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘). A total of 26,414 signatures have been gathered over the past two months, surpassing the 10 percent threshold of 23,287 in Hsinchu County’s second electoral district, chief campaigner Hsieh Ting-ting (謝婷婷) said. “Our target is to gather an additional 1,500 signatures to reach
RSS