Thousands of people flooded the streets of Kaohsiung City yesterday evening to mark the 30th anniversary of the Kaohsiung Incident.
Speaking to a crowd in a sealed-off area of Jhongshan Road beside the Formosa Boulevard MRT station — the same place where political dissidents calling for democratic reforms were arrested 30 years ago in what came to be known as the Kaohsiung Incident — former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) urged the public to safeguard democracy and the freedoms they now enjoy.
Lu and Hsieh played prominent roles in the incident, with Lu one of the Kaohsiung Eight, or the eight high profile leaders of the protest — and Hsieh later joining the team of attorneys for their defense.
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YIH, TAIPEI TIMES
Other members of the defense team — including Chen Chi-sen (陳繼盛), Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) and You Ching (尤清) — also attended the event.
A visibly emotional Lu, who had been sentenced by a military court to 12 years in prison, told the crowd that the freedoms taken for granted today had to be sustained through continued sacrifices. She called on the public to defend democracy against “attacks” by the government, referring to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government's plan to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China.
“The KMT's eagerness to conduct secret meetings and agreements with China” shows that the party does not take democratic values seriously, Lu said.
Critics say the agreement would put Taiwan’s sovereignty at risk and lay the foundation for unification with China. The government, however, insists it would be purely an economic agreement with no political strings attached.
“The KMT government seems ready to sell out Taiwan to achieve peaceful unification with China,” Lu said.
These views were echoed by Hsieh, who said that the nation's hard-earned freedoms were under constant pressure from tht KMT government. He added that the public “needs to act ... to preserve our freedoms.”
“Kaohsiung is the birthplace of our nation’s democracy, I hope that we can once again show the nation our values in next year's elections,” Hsieh said, referring to the municipal elections next December.
Jacklin Lee (李錦英), one of thousands who attended the event, told the Taipei Times: “We came out tonight because we love Taiwan ... These people have sacrificed themselves for us, of course, we need to support them.”
Lee said she lived directly across the street from where the arrests were made 30 years ago.
“At the time, we all had a feeling that arrests were going to be made, but the fact that they actually had the audacity to do so still surprised us,” she said.
Chiu Huang-chuan (邱晃泉) agreed, saying: “I find it hard to believe that the same [party] which locked up the protesters for sedition is now siding with China instead of Taiwan.”
“Society needs to come together, reach a consensus to support Taiwan [against] these moves,” Chiu said.
The organizers of the event estimated that more than 10,000 attended the commemoration last night.
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
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
Taiwan is planning to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based X-ray imaging to customs clearance points over the next four years to curb the smuggling of contraband, a Customs Administration official said. The official on condition of anonymity said the plan would cover meat products, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, large bundles of banknotes and certain agricultural produce. Taiwan began using AI image recognition systems in July 2021. This year, generative AI — a subset of AI which uses generative models to produce data — would be used to train AI models to produce realistic X-ray images of contraband, the official
RSS