Investigations into the 228 Massacre and White Terror cases should be relaunched because recent controversial comments about the massacre showed that some people are still trying to find excuses for the merciless killings and infringement of human rights, advocates said yesterday.
Independence groups yesterday lambasted Shih Hsin University professor Wang Hsiao-po (王曉波), who said that the killing of 20,000 people by Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) Nationalist Army in the 228 Massacre was “a small case” compared with the 400,000 killed during Chiang’s campaigns against the Chinese Communist Party in China.
“Making comparisons by numbers of death toll is a violation of the universal value that every life matters. If Wang is right, does it mean that what happened recently in Ukraine, where hundreds of people died in protests, was an even smaller case?” Wu Ching-chin (吳景欽), an associate professor of law at Aletheia University, told a press conference.
While victims and their families in the tragedy were compensated by the government decades later, Wu said the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration has refused to acknowledge its full responsibility in the massacre, which was why Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) would describe the brutal crackdown an “unintentional mistake.”
Lawyer Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎), a member of the Taiwan Forever Association, said comments that denied the existence of the Holocaust or helped conceal the massacre would be a violation of law in 11 European countries, including Germany and Austria.
Wang could sent to jail by saying what he said, if there were similar laws in Taiwan, Huang added.
As Wang also serves on the Ministry of Education’s history curriculum adjustment task force, which is trying to “de-Taiwanize” high-school textbooks, Northern Taiwan Society secretary-general Steve Wang (王思為) said pro-Taiwan groups had three recommendations.
“We call for abolishing the curriculum adjustment, and future adjustments would have to be screened and monitored by the Legislative Yuan,” Steve Wang said.
“Lastly, investigations into the 228 Massacre and other White Terror cases should be relaunched and those responsible identified,” he added.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
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