Academics and experts yesterday clashed over measures to promote transitional justice at a public hearing held by the Legislative Yuan’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee in Taipei.
The committee is deliberating a transitional justice promotion act, now that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) holds a legislative majority for the first time, following the January elections.
Hsieh Chen-yu (謝政諭), dean of Soochow University’s School of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, said that the “soft authoritarianism” of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) rule under martial law called for a different approach to transitional justice from other nations because the KMT itself had moved in the direction of democratization, including the passage of legislation such as the Act Governing the Recovery of Damage of Individual Rights During the Period of Martial Law (戒嚴時期人民受損權利回復條例), the Compensation Act for Wrongful Trials on Charges of Sedition and Espionage During the Martial Law Period (戒嚴時期不當叛亂暨匪諜審判案件補償條例) and the February 28 Incident Disposition and Compensation Act (二二八事件處理及賠償條例).
Other academics and victims of the White Terror era disagreed, saying that past moves toward transitional justice were partial at best.
“Efforts to reveal the true face of history, rehabilitate victims and open new judicial investigations to call to account offending persons and groups have proceeded like ‘squeezing toothpaste’: passive and partial, if they were done at all,” said Li Fu-chung (李福鐘), a professor at National Chengchi University’s Graduate Institute of Taiwan History.
Representatives of White Terror victims said that previous legislation stopped short of providing them with full rehabilitation by denying them the right to file lawsuits to overturn unjust convictions in military courts.
“Even though we have received some compensation, this does not constitute true rehabilitation,” Formosan Political Prisoner Association president Tsai Kuan-yu (蔡寬裕) said.
“Given that the government has already ruled that we were unjustly convicted on false charges, it should give us justice,” Tsai said.
While only 96 of more than 7,000 martial law convictions reviewed by the Compensation Foundation for Improper Verdicts were found to be legally based, compensation provided under the Compensation Act for Wrongful Trials provided only administrative relief rather true reparations, which would explicitly acknowledge governmental wrongdoing, he said.
Articles of the National Security Act (國安法) passed shortly before the lifting of martial law explicitly denied victims the right to appeal military court verdicts after martial law was lifted, overriding provisions of the Martial Law Act (戒嚴法) itself and preventing victims from recovering property unjustly confiscated by the government, Tsai said.
“In beginning to pursue transitional justice, what is most important is preventing abuses,” said Lee Hsun-min (李訓民), a consultant to the KMT’s National Policy Foundation, who criticized the DPP’s proposal as infringing on judicial authority by proposing to invest a transitional justice promotion committee with broad investigative powers.
“This will be a quasi-judicial executive body, totally redundant and existing only for the purpose of violating property rights,” he said, referring to the possibility that such a committee might play a role in appropriating the KMT’s “ill-gotten assets.”
Ming Chuan University professor of public affairs Chi Chun-chen (紀俊臣) said the DPP’s draft should be revised to fully guarantee the transitional justice promotion committee’s independence.
“Because the committee’s investigative powers would turn it into a quasi-judicial body, it is inappropriate to place it under the Executive Yuan, where it could be influenced by the party background of the premier,” he said.
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