National Taiwan University (NTU) said yesterday it would apologize to philosophy professors who were accused of being leftists and fired in 1974.
NTU president Chen Wei-jao (
Chen said the university will send a formal letter to the victims and their families as an apology.
The university said it would welcome those professors to resume their teaching jobs at NTU. Those who do not want to go back to the university will receive NT$60,000 in compensation, Chen said.
Thirteen professors were forced to give up their teaching jobs at that time. Four decided to return to NTU and nine did not.
"This is the most unfortunate incident since NTU was founded. The school authorities felt sorry that political powers intervened in the university. Some did not tell the truth and even framed their colleagues as leftists, over which we feel deep regret," Chen said in a statement released at the press conference.
Ko Ching-ming (柯慶明), one member of the investigation committee set up by the NTU to piece together the truth, recounted the course of the incident at the press conference and said the belated justice demonstrated that academic freedom and loyalty to knowledge do exist.
Ko said that during the 1970s, when tensions arose over ownership of a small group of uninhabited islands northeast of Taiwan -- the Tiaoyutai, or Senkaku, islands, have long been a conflict between Taiwan, China and Japan, each of whom claim them as part of their territory.
The feud neared violence on a number of occasions since 1969, when the UN Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East reported possible hydrocarbon deposits under the islands.
The dispute stoked both nationalist sentiment and prompted cries for peace from several professors in NTU's philosophy department. As students became increasingly boisterous, the authorities ultimately forced the university to close its philosophy department and fire those professors who had been stirring the students to protest.
Ko said the tragedy was manipulated by "certain people with ulterior motives" to frame some professors and students.
According to Ko, former New Party legislator Elmer Fung (馮滬祥), then a philosophy graduate student, was one of the accomplices who instigated the incident under the Taiwan Garrison Command.
Chen Ku-ying (陳鼓應), a philosophy professor who was persecuted in the incident, said he was happy to see the victims' names cleared and appreciated Chen Wei-jao's courage to restore the truth.
He also said that then-KMT secretary-general Chiang Yang-shih (
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS