In view of the catastrophe facing Japan following the massive earthquake and tsunami on Friday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Huang Chao-shun’s (黃昭順) office director Chao Chih-hsun (趙志勳) yesterday caused a stir with a series of controversial posts on his Facebook page, such as: “I would even like to attack Tokyo and kill tens of millions of people.”
Questioning whether there was any need to send aid to Japan, Chao added: “Return the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), then we will consider giving aid,” and “Let the bastards Hui [former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝)] and Ling [Japan-based Taiwan independence advocate Alice King (金美齡)] pay; it’s their motherland.”
Chao’s comments quickly drew a stern rebuke from Netizens, with some forwarding them to Huang’s Facebook page. Others set up a petition site, demanding that Chao apologize.
Huang later expressed regrets and apologies on Facebook and added she had removed Chao from his post effective immediately.
Huang added she would also make a donation of NT$50,000 to relief funds for Japan.
Chao’s post came as a surprise to Huang, who had just expressed her sympathy for the Japanese people in the wake of the earthquake and her hope that all Taiwanese nationals in Japan remained safe in a post on Facebook on Friday.
Chao later posted a further comment, saying that his earlier posts had been personal in nature and have nothing to do with his work.
“If you don’t like it, don’t look. Or argue it out with me,” Chao said.
Chao also said that he had copied derogatory remarks against him and reserved the right to take legal action over those he considered to be slanderous.
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
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The annual Taipei Summer Festival, which starts today, is to tone down its fireworks displays, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said on Monday. Fireworks displays are to be held at the riverside site in Datong District’s (大同) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area on four days at this year’s festival, with the first today, and then on Wednesday next week, July 31 and Aug. 10, the department said. There were eight displays last year, with the reduction aimed at minimizing inconvenience to local residents, it said. The first three shows, which are all on Wednesdays, are to last for five minutes, while the final