Pro-independence groups yesterday paid tribute to Taiwanese independence activist Chen Chih-hsiung (陳智雄) at a press conference that commemorated Chen’s execution 50 years ago by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime.
Chen’s daughter, Vonny Chen (陳雅芳), displayed her father’s final letters written before his execution — which she did not receive until March this year — at the news conference organized by the World United Formosans for Independence (WUFI).
Born in Pingtung in 1916, Chen was executed on May 28, 1963. According to WUFI, Chen was the first Taiwanese independence activist to be executed in Taiwan.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Vonny Chen, who grew up in Indonesia and does not speak Mandarin, told the press conference in English that her resentment toward her father as a child vanished after getting to know more about her father’s “courageous story” as she became older.
“I received compensation from Taiwan’s government about 10 years ago, but I could not care less about the money because I would rather have my father back,” Vonny Chen said, adding that she never knew about the letters and properties of her father in government archives until March.
Chen Chih-hsiung, described as “the No. 1 martyr for Taiwanese independence” by his acquaintances, was always high-spirited in his prison cell, said Liu Chin-shih (劉金獅), who stayed next door to him in prison.
Chen Chih-hsiung shouted “Long live Taiwan independence” twice before he was sent to the execution ground on that fateful day, Liu said.
Knowing that Chen had always been proud of his belief and refused to be intimidated by prison officials or the fear of death, the soldiers smashed his feet, pierced his cheek with steel wires and stuffed a cloth in his mouth before dragging him to the execution ground, Liu said.
A multilinguist, Chen worked as a translator in Indonesia for the Japanese Imperial Army during the Pacific War and after World War II, became a jewelry dealer there, where he assisted in the Indonesian independence movement and was imprisoned by the Dutch.
Chen later devoted his energy to the Taiwanese independence movement and was named ambassador to Southeast Asia by the Japan-based provisional government of the Republic of Taiwan in February 1958 and served in that capacity until he left for Japan later that year.
Chen was kidnapped by the KMT officials in Japan and returned to Taiwan the following year, but he kept working for the independence movement. He was arrested by the Taiwan Garrison Command in 1962 and charged with rebellion.
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
Weather conditions across Taiwan are expected to remain stable today, but cloudy to rainy skies are expected from tomorrow onward due to increasing moisture in the atmosphere, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). Daytime highs today are expected to hit 25-27°C in western Taiwan and 22-24°C in the eastern counties of Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung, data on the CWA website indicated. After sunset, temperatures could drop to 16-17°C in most parts of Taiwan. For tomorrow, precipitation is likely in northern Taiwan as a cloud system moves in from China. Daytime temperatures are expected to hover around 25°C, the CWA said. Starting Monday, areas
Taiwan has recorded its first fatal case of Coxsackie B5 enterovirus in 10 years after a one-year-old boy from southern Taiwan died from complications early last month, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. CDC spokesman Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) told a news conference that the child initially developed a fever and respiratory symptoms before experiencing seizures and loss of consciousness. The boy was diagnosed with acute encephalitis and admitted to intensive care, but his condition deteriorated rapidly, and he passed away on the sixth day of illness, Lo said. This also marks Taiwan’s third enterovirus-related death this year and the first severe
A Taiwanese software developer has created a generative artificial intelligence (AI) model to help people use AI without exposing sensitive data, project head Huang Chung-hsiao (黃崇校) said yesterday. Huang, a 55-year-old coder leading a US-based team, said that concerns over data privacy and security in popular generative AIs such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek motivated him to develop a personal AI assistant named “Mei.” One of the biggest security flaws with cloud-based algorithms is that users are required to hand over personal information to access the service, giving developers the opportunity to mine user data, he said. For this reason, many government agencies and
RSS