Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said yesterday that the Tiananmen Square Massacre, “temporarily obstructed the forward march of [China] mainland,” but that nation then “came back to the path of reform and opening-up after a short while due to the unstoppable trend of modernization for the zhonghua minzu [Chinese nation].”
In a Facebook post concerning the June 4, 1989, massacre, Hung said that every year on the anniversary of the incident she gets a “special feeling.”
“This incident is certainly a mishap and a tragedy. From a long-term historical perspective, 6/4 did temporarily obstruct the mainland’s advance, but since the modernization of the zhonghua minzu is an unstoppable trend, the mainland returned once again to the road of reform and opening up... and has grown rapidly in the past 20 years,” Hung said.
Hung wrote that although she is “not particularly in sync with many of my mainland friends,” her view is that those who participated in the event “contributed greatly to what [China] has achieved with reform and opening up.”
“Regardless of the differences in the views we might have of them, they all reflected a kind of astuteness of the time and a willingness to actively participate in the event. I think it is exactly this willingness that has made Chinese society quickly swing back to the right track of openness,” she wrote.
“Just think about it. Are the calls for democracy and rule of law made by those elites who participated in the June 4 event not exactly what [China] is now heading toward?” she wrote.
Hung also related the KMT to the idea of the Chinese nation.
“Putting aside the clashes in the past [between the Chinese Communist Party and the KMT], is the effort the KMT has made in Taiwan not also aimed at finding a better way to democracy and liberty for the children of zhonghua minzu?”
She called for a life full of “tolerance” and “respect” for all “Chinese children.”
“We have seen that the societies on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are walking toward this ideal. Since [China] has shown — different from before — its ability to be tolerant, could it then consider granting a more tolerant handling of this historical wound?” Hung wrote.
Former KMT spokesperson Yang Wei-chung (楊偉中) said “fury” is the only emotion he felt after reading Hung’s post.
He accused Hung of writing the post “with the tone of a lackey” who “begs for tolerance from the oppressor and the dictator.”
Yang also lambasted Hung for her “distorted understanding” of the historical connection between the crackdown and reform, claiming that hope for real, comprehensive reforms had all but been destroyed by the incident.
“So in Hung’s mind, China is now on the path to democracy and rule of law under communist rule —— so the only problem remaining for Hung is to have the rulers ‘tolerate’ those June 4 elites for them to ‘participate’ and to have the chance to ‘sacrifice’ themselves in order to contribute to the Chinese nation,” Yang said.
“In the end, this is how a belief in historical truth and universal values is being trumped by Hung’s nationalistic longing as one of the ‘Chinese children,’” Yang said.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with
RSS