President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday downplayed criticism of his China policy by a family member of a victim of the 228 Incident, saying Taiwan was a free and democratic society where everybody was entitled to his or her own opinion.
Addressing a ceremony for the opening of a new exhibition at the Taipei 228 Memorial Museum in downtown Taipei, Taiwan 228 Peace Association secretary-general Chang Chiu-wu (張秋梧) said all political parties must respect history and the 228 Incident, regardless of who is in power.
“It is a known fact that dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) cracked down heavily on Taiwanese and that Chiang must be identified as the perpetrator,” she said. “The wound must be healed, but the descendants of ‘Mainlanders’ do not necessarily have to bear the original sin.”
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
“Please allow me to tell you something, Mr President: We could not agree less with your China policy,” she said.
The 228 Memorial Museum was reopened to the public after a 10-month, NT$30 million (US$1 million) renovation project in time for the 64th anniversary of the 228 Incident on Monday next week.
The 228 Incident refers to the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government’s bloody crackdown on demonstrators under Chiang’s administration after a woman was beaten for selling contraband cigarettes in Taipei on the night of Feb. 27, 1947.
The beating sparked nationwide disorder and the slaughter of tens of thousands of people at the hands of KMT troops.
The KMT did not acknowledge any mistakes or offer public apologies for the incident until former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) administration. Ma has promised to put greater effort into uncovering the truth of the incident since taking office, and a national museum on the 228 Incident is scheduled to open in Taipei next Monday.
Ma, who spoke after Chang, said he did not mind her criticism because Taiwan was a “free and democratic society where people can express their opinions freely.”
“In the end, we will make the final decision through a democratic mechanism,” he said.
To commemorate the 228 Incident, Ma said the administration must make efforts at redress and face the mistakes made 64 years ago.
“What is more important is to prevent any similar incident from happening again,” he said. “The key lies in a free and democratic society so everybody has the opportunity to voice his or her opinion.”
The museum was established in 1997 when former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was Taipei mayor. Ma said some had speculated that he would get rid of any museum display putting the KMT in a negative light after he was elected Taipei mayor in 1998.
“But I didn’t,” he said.
Ma said similar atrocities occurred elsewhere. Taking Germany as an example, Ma said Germans faced up to the history of the Nazis after World War II and changed the world’s perception of the country.
The German government -honestly dealt with its past, apologized to the victims and their families and admitted the mistake they made, he said.
“Frankly speaking, not many countries can do that,” he said. “Some countries decide to erase their past rather than face it. The Republic of China government, however, chooses to face its past.”
Over the years, several measures have been adopted, he said, including apologizing, admitting mistakes, erecting a memorial statute, enacting a special law to offer compensation to victims and their families, and designating Feb. 28 as a national holiday.
After attending various events in commemoration of the incident, Ma said he realized that only by honestly facing history could people talk about the incident rationally and that it was important to empathize with victims and their families.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS