The Ministry of National Defense has officially removed terms “to pay homage” and “mausoleum” in references to the final resting places of former presidents Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) as part of transitional justice efforts.
The ministry on April 22 issued a notice changing the Armed Forces Reserve Command Taoyuan Division Management Regulations on Affairs of Paying Homage (國防部全民防衛動員署後備指揮部桃園管理組開放謁靈管理須知) to Armed Forces Reserve Command Taoyuan Division Management Regulations on Affairs of Paying Homage for the Cihu and Dasi Base (國防部全民防衛動員署後備指揮部慈湖營區暨大溪營區開放管理要點).
The Cihu (慈湖) and Dasi (大溪) areas are now referred to as bases and not “mausoleums,” and that applications to visit them, which used to include language of “paying homage,” have been changed to applications to visit the area where the sarcophagi of the two Chiangs are, the ministry said.
Photo: Taipei Times
The move was in response to Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) last month asking whether the government intended to remove the honor guards posted at Cihu and Dasi.
Chiu also asked whether the government intended to draft regulations regarding the usage of “to pay homage” and “mausoleum,” stating that the purpose of the military is to defend the nation, not to protect the graves of autocrats.
The word “mausoleum” carries imperial connotations, Chiu said, adding that the request of then-Taoyuan mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) that the Ministry of National Defense dispatch honor guards to the sites on the grounds of stimulating tourism was a waste of taxpayers’ money.
Since his death on April 5, 1975, Chiang Kai-shek’s sarcophagus has been at Cihu and has not been interred, while the sarcophagus of his son Chiang Ching-kuo, who died on Jan. 13, 1988, is at Dasi.
The Presidential Office and the military at the time dispatched the military police to the areas to protect the areas and established the Taoyuan Management Division to oversee and maintain the sites.
The terms “to pay homage” and “mausoleum” in reference to the former presidents of the KMT regime have carried over into common parlance even after Taiwan became a democracy.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
RSS