The attempted assassination of late president Chiang Ching-kuo (
Chen has published his research on the incident, in which 32-year-old Taiwanese Cornell University student Peter Ng (
Chen was one of the panelists invited to speak at an Academic Historica forum in Taipei entitled "Post-World War II Dossier and History Study."
Ng, who also attended the forum, said the assassination attempt was planned by four people: himself, his sister, his brother-in-law, former secretary-general of World United Formosans for Independence (WUFI) T.T. Deh (鄭自財), and WUFI member Lai Wen-hsiung (賴文雄).
Ng raised his gun and was preparing to shoot Chiang, who was in the US to meet US president Richard Nixon in his capacity as vice premier, but a member of Chiang's US security detail struck him on the elbow, causing him to miss his mark.
Ng was wrestled to the ground and immediately arrested, along with Deh, who came to Ng's aid when he heard the shot go off.
Asked whether WUFI had backed away from the assassination attempt, Ng said: "Although there was some discussion of the assassination attempt within WUFI, [the organization] didn't come up with a concrete plan. We also wanted to protect the organization."
A guest at the forum suggested that WUFI had abandoned the assassination idea because Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮), then chairman of WUFI, was against it.
Chen said the assassination attempt had initially boosted morale among independence activists. However, he said the decision by Ng and Deh to skip bail, coupled with WUFI's mishandling of the incident, had a disruptive effect on the pro-independence camp.
Ng said in his own book that he had never considered the possibility of serving time in the US. He argued that there was no reason for him to comply with the laws of the US government, which had helped consolidate the Chiang regime.
In Chen's book, Ng was quoted as saying the assassination attempt was intended to build connections between Taiwanese independence activists and international social movements in exile.
Other topics discussed during the forum included the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime's crackdown on democracy advocates.
This was the subject of a presentation given by Lin Chi-yang (
He cited Lei Chen (
This demonstrated the KMT regime's willingness to exhaust all efforts to perpetuate its existence, Lin said.
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
POOR IMPLEMENTATION: Teachers welcomed the suspension, saying that the scheme disrupted school schedules, quality of learning and the milk market A policy to offer free milk to all school-age children nationwide is to be suspended next year due to multiple problems arising from implementation of the policy, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday. The policy was designed to increase the calcium intake of school-age children in Taiwan by drinking milk, as more than 80 percent drink less than 240ml per day. The recommended amount is 480ml. It was also implemented to help Taiwanese dairy farmers counter competition from fresh milk produced in New Zealand, which is to be imported to Taiwan tariff-free next year when the Agreement Between New Zealand and
A woman who allegedly spiked the food and drinks of an Australian man with rat poison, leaving him in intensive care, has been charged with attempted murder, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. The woman, identified by her surname Yang (楊), is accused of repeatedly poisoning Alex Shorey over the course of several months last year to prevent the Australian man from leaving Taiwan, prosecutors said in a statement. Shorey was evacuated back to Australia on May 3 last year after being admitted to intensive care in Taiwan. According to prosecutors, Yang put bromadiolone, a rodenticide that prevents blood from
China is likely to focus on its economy over the next four years and not set a timetable for attempting to annex Taiwan, a researcher at Beijing’s Tsinghua University wrote in an article published in Foreign Affairs magazine on Friday. In the article titled “Why China isn’t scared of Trump: US-Chinese tensions may rise, but his isolationism will help Beijing,” Chinese international studies researcher Yan Xuetong (閻學通) wrote that the US and China are unlikely to go to war over Taiwan in the next four years under US president-elect Donald Trump. While economic and military tensions between the US and China would
RSS