Prosecutors yesterday declined to file charges against four people suspected of vandalizing a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) at Fu Jen Catholic University earlier this year.
After completing its investigation, the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office said there would be no charges filed against the four suspects, three of whom are university students, over the vandalism on Feb. 28, the 70th anniversary of the 228 Incident.
Investigators said that on Feb. 28, a dozen people gathered on the university’s campus with a portable electric grinder and hand tools to deface the statue.
Photo: CNA
Bystanders called the police, who arrived after the group had broken off the bronze statue’s cane, the investigators said, adding that a confrontation ensued after police tried to stop the group, with both sides later saying they sustained minor cuts and bruises.
Police apprehended four people and sought to press charges of obstructing an officer in discharge of their duties.
However, prosecutors yesterday said the charges were dropped because the four were not violent and did not resist arrest.
Photo: Lee Ya-wen, Taipei Times
Investigators quoted one of the students, surnamed Lo (羅), as saying during questioning that “the statue of Chiang Kai-shek symbolizes the past authoritarian dictatorship. It should not continue to stand inside schools. We just wanted to remove it.”
Separately yesterday, a statue of Chiang at Zhongzheng Senior High School in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) was found decapitated and covered with the slogan “No removal, no name change; then it is decapitation” written in white paint.
School officials called the police after learning of the incident in the morning.
There has been a campaign by local residents and pro-Taiwan civic groups calling for the school’s original name, Shilin High School, to be restored.
The then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime mandated the name change in 1975 to commemorate Chiang, who died earlier that year. Zhongzheng (中正) is the adulatory name used by the cult of personality that worships Chiang.
Local residents have cited the current name’s political connotations when lending their support to the campaign, and many still refer to the school by its old name.
Taipei police said they dispatched a forensics team to gather evidence and examine surveillance camera footage of the incident.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
A car bomb killed a senior Russian general in southern Moscow yesterday morning, the latest high-profile army figure to be blown up in a blast that came just hours after Russian and Ukrainian delegates held separate talks in Miami on a plan to end the war. Kyiv has not commented on the incident, but Russian investigators said they were probing whether the blast was “linked” to “Ukrainian special forces.” The attack was similar to other assassinations of generals and pro-war figures that have either been claimed, or are widely believed to have been orchestrated, by Ukraine. Russian Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, 56, head
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
RSS