Taipei City’s Cultural Assets Review Committee members agreed yesterday that preserving a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) emblem on the East Gate was a debatable issue and that modifications were permissible if done legally.
Three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors — Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄), Liu Yao-ren (劉耀仁) and Huang Hsiang-chun (黃向群) — who slapped paint over the KMT emblem on the gate on Tuesday did not cause structural damage, so the Taipei City Government could reconsider bringing them to justice, members said.
Committee member Huang Fu-sen (黃富三) said the Council of Cultural Affairs had failed to identify the emblem when it designated the East Gate a national monument in 1998.
“Now that we face this problem, what we can do is discuss whether or not the emblem, a product of a party-state, should be preserved. This is a debatable issue,” he said.
The committee members made the remarks in a public hearing organized by Taipei City’s Department of Cultural Affairs yesterday to discuss whether or not the KMT emblem should be removed from the gate.
The three councilors, KMT Taipei City councilors and about a dozen citizens attended the public hearing to express their opinions.
Chuang yesterday defended his action in the public hearing and slammed the city government for ignoring opposition to the emblem.
“The government cannot make the decision for the people and it should not hold such a dictatorial attitude,” he said.
Participating citizens were divided on whether the emblem should be removed, while some challenged the city government for failing to hold more public hearings gather opinions.
KMT Taipei City Councilor Lai Su-ru (賴素如), who attended the public hearing on behalf of the KMT’s Culture and Communication Commission, did not clarify the KMT’s stance on the matter, and said the party would leave the issue to the CCA.
Commissioner of the department Lee Yongping (李永萍) said the department would gather opinions in a public hearing and present them to the CCA, which holds authority over the monument.
“The department has no stance on this issue and we will do whatever the CCA decides,” she said.
The KMT emblems were first carved and painted on the East Gate and other three historical gates in 1966 when the KMT modified the Qing Dynasty gates.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
A man in Tainan has been cleared on charges of public insult after giving the middle finger during a road rage incident, as judges deemed the gesture was made “briefly to express negative feelings.” In last week’s ruling at the High Court’s Tainan branch, judges acquitted a driver, surnamed Cheng (程), for an incident along Tainan’s Nanmen Road in September 2023, when Cheng had spotted a place to park his car in an adjacent lane. Cheng slowed down his vehicle to go into reverse, to back into the parking spot, but the car behind followed too closely, as its driver thought Cheng
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
President William Lai (賴清德) should protect Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), and stop supporting domestic strife and discord, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrote on Facebook yesterday. US President Donald Trump and TSMC on Monday jointly announced that the company would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next few years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US. The TSMC plans have promoted concern in Taiwan that it would effectively lead to the chipmaking giant becoming Americanized. The Lai administration lacks tangible policies to address concerns that Taiwan might follow in Ukraine’s footsteps, Ma wrote. Instead, it seems to think it could
RSS