Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) accused President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday of insincerity in promoting reconciliation with victims of political persecution.
Ma’s paying tribute to dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and planning to change the name of the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall back to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall showed that the Ma government has never reviewed the massacre conducted by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Tsai said.
“When Ma bows and sheds tears in front of the body of the main culprit [Chiang], he rubs salt in the wounds of victims of the 228 Incident and the White Terror,” Tsai said at a ceremony to commemorate victims of the two events.
PHOTO: CNA
The ceremony, organized by the DPP, took place at the main entrance of the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall under the Liberty Square archway.
The former DPP government renamed the memorial in 2007 as part of its efforts to remove symbols commemorating Chiang. The DPP also replaced the inscription on the hall’s entry arch, dazhong zhizheng (大中至正), meaning Chiang’s “great neutrality and perfect uprightness,” to “Liberty Square” (自由廣場) and redecorated the hall.
“Although the Ma government has proposed reinstating the title of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, it has never reviewed or apologized for the KMT’s violence,” Tsai said.
The KMT respects Chiang, while the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) venerates Mao Zedong (毛澤東) and both parties do everything they can to avoid facing the massacres they committed, she said.
Now that the KMT and CCP have reconciled, both are cooperating to legitimize their rule and rationalize their massacres, she said.
While the KMT government held a ceremony to commemorate victims of the White Terror yesterday, it was not sincere in holding the event, she said.
DPP Legislator Wang Sing-nan (王幸男) said copies of military court rulings in Chiang’s handwriting showed Chiang often changed lighter sentences to heavier sentences and heavier sentences to the death penalty.
The 228 Incident was a rebellion against KMT rule sparked on Feb. 27, 1947. It has been estimated that some 20,000 people were killed by KMT troops in the months following the rebellion.
As Chiang dispatched KMT troops to Taiwan, many believe he should bear the largest share of responsibility for the tragedy.
The White Terror began soon after the 228 Incident, when the government launched a brutal military crackdown against locals protesting the administration of executive administrator Chen Yi (陳儀), who was appointed by the KMT government to govern Taiwan after World War II. Martial law was enacted briefly at that time.
In the following years, tens of thousands of people were arrested, imprisoned, tortured and murdered.
During the White Terror era, the KMT government killed tens of thousands of suspected dissidents, mainly the Taiwanese intellectual and social elite, as it searched for communist agents, sympathizers and others it feared could pose a threat to its rule.
The powerful Taiwan Garrison Command identified suspects through its widespread secret-agent system.
Also See: REMEMBERING THE WHITE TERROR: Ma promises to increase efforts for compensation
Also See: REMEMBERING THE WHITE TERROR: Prisoner shares violin tale
Also See: REMEMBERING THE WHITE TERROR: Researcher says Chiangs should be held responsible
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS