The lies perpetuated by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) about the 228 Incident must be exposed and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) innocence restored, deep-blue KMT supporters said yesterday.
The supporters set up an exhibition of historical data that it said would exonerate the KMT, while the Blue Sky Action Alliance is planning another event today to counter the DPP’s commemoration events.
The Incident refers to the killing of a cigarette vendor on Feb. 27, 1947, which led to an uprising that was violently suppressed by the KMT government. The resulting crackdown led to nearly four decades of martial law.
The Incident is a minor law-enforcement matter blown out of proportion by DPP propaganda, alliance convener Wu Chih-chang (武之璋) said, adding that the KMT’s silence has only encouraged such lies.
The party should fight back, as there is a plethora of historical data that could shed light on the “truth” of the Incident, Wu added.
The veracity of the claims that a massacre occurred on Feb. 28, 1947, should be doubted, former KMT Central Policy Committee director Alex Tsai (蔡正元) said.
No media — including the large numbers of foreign reporters present at the time — have been able to provide photographic evidence, Tsai said.
“Two hundred thousand is a lot of people to be killed, [and if they were deposited into mass graves], they should have been dug up by now,” he said, adding that the KMT should “man up” and call the DPP out on its lies.
In a book he is writing that he plans to name The History of Taiwan Island (台灣島史記), Tsai writes that Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) did nothing wrong and should be treated fairly.
Tsai dismissed claims made by Academia Historica director Wu Mi-cha (吳密察) in his new book International View of the 228 Incident (解密,國際檔案的二 二 八事件), that the KMT used exploding bullets to attack protesters.
Such equipment was relatively advanced at the time, and the KMT did not have the ability to make the bullets, Tsai said, claiming that they belonged to the Japanese, and only Taiwanese soldiers drafted to serve in the Japanese Imperial Army would have had access to them.
The KMT’s policy of not publicizing data on the event and simply apologizing cannot be condoned, Chunghwa Pan-Blue Alliance convener Lin Chung-shan (林忠山) said.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first