Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday downplayed the controversy over the involvement of his father, Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村), in activities marking the 77th anniversary of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in China, including his singing of China’s national anthem.
The footage of Hau Pei-tsun singing the Chinese anthem during a recent interview with China Central Television (CCTV) was ballyhooed by Chinese media, which has incurred criticism from lawmakers across party lines.
While lawmakers called Hau Pei-tsun’s deed inappropriate, the Taipei mayor said the song was originally a war song, before it became China’s national anthem.
Hau Pei-tsun, 95, served as the country’s chief of the general staff before he became minister of national defense and premier.
Hau Pei-tsun was in China to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the so-called July 7th Incident, which is considered to be the official start of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Chinese official media was said to have repeatedly played the footage of him singing a part of the Chinese national anthem.
Hau Lung-bin yesterday came to his father’s defense by saying that everybody who participated in the anti-Japanese resistance movement during the war knows the song.
Now the Chinese national anthem, March of the Volunteers (義勇軍進行曲) was once a theme song for the Chinese anti-Japanese resistance during World War II, among Communists and Nationalists alike.
“My father also stressed that the animosity could be appeased, but history should return to facts,” Hau Lung-bin said, referring to remarks his father made when visiting the Anti-Japanese Aggression War Memorial Hall in Beijing.
Hau Pei-tsun was highlighting Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) efforts in the war against Japanese aggression, which have typically been minimized by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
This is not the first time that the senior Hau has sung the song on a Chinese TV program. He made an appearance on Phoenix TV last year singing the song and said that it is conflicting for the CCP to make the song China’s national anthem, but at the same time “cover up the real history.”
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) said yesterday that the former premier’s action is to some extent related to his son’s potential presidential election, intended “to show their goodwill to the Chinese government.”
“It is doubtful that Hau [Pei-tsun] would dare to sing the song during the time when he was the army commander-in-chief, the chief of the general staff, the defense minister or the premier,” Kao said.
“He emphasized it was a theme song of the anti-Japanese movement, but every [Taiwanese], let alone a person who held military power for years, knows it could have cost your life if you sang this song [before Martial Law was lifted],” he added.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chi Kuo-tung (紀國棟) said that, as one of symbolic, key figures of the Republic of China army, Hau [Pei-tsun]’s singing of China’s national anthem “would confuse his proteges about who to fight for.”
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
RSS