The Ministry of Education and intelligence agencies were behind Huang Erh-hsuan’s (黃爾璇) firing from Soochow University in 1983, the Executive Yuan’s Transitional Justice Commission has said, deeming the incident a case of political persecution.
Huang was an associate professor of political science at the university. He was also a founding member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and served as a Presidential Office adviser. He passed away on Feb. 9.
The commission on March 13 launched an investigation into Huang’s firing.
Photo: Screen grab from the Internet
It contacted Huang’s daughter to obtain his notes, diaries, manuscripts and articles to gain a better understanding of the social atmosphere at the time of his firing, the commission said, adding that it interviewed Huang’s former colleagues, friends and relatives to ascertain if there is any information that needs to made public.
In light of the Huang family’s long-standing belief that his sacking was caused by political interference, the commission said it also combed through political archives looking for evidence of Huang being monitored by the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime.
A direct link has been established between Huang’s firing and interference by the KMT and intelligence agencies, which had determined that Huang’s “inciting remarks and actions had incited students,” the commission’s preliminary findings showed.
The commission found that then-university president Duan Mu-kai (端木愷) had written a letter to Huang in June 1983, saying that the school was planning to reduce the number of classes and faculty at its Department of Political Science, citing graduates’ difficulty in finding jobs and low enrollment rates.
Huang was subsequently fired from the university.
Colleges and universities at the time were mostly infiltrated by investigation bureau agents, military education officers, and KMT and China Youth Corps members, the commission said, citing the interviewees.
The university reduced the number of classes at the department from two to one following Huang’s firing, but raised it back to two soon afterward, which aroused suspicion, the commission said.
The incident implicates the ministry, as universities need its permission to change the number of classes, it added.
Evidence points at the ministry and intelligence agencies as the masterminds behind Huang’s sacking, but the decision was carried out by the university, the commission said, adding that its conclusion is backed by political archives.
The commission said the then-KMT regime stepped up its monitoring of public and private colleges, and integrated its political, party and military systems on campuses after a student movement was galvanized by the 1971-1972 Baodiao movement to defend the nation’s sovereignty claim over the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台).
In 1971, the then-KMT regime established a mechanism called the “Chun Feng Briefing” (春風會報), which was tasked with decisionmaking, collecting intelligence on “campus security,” and overseeing the so-called campus stability groups formed by faculty and investigation bureau agents to eliminate “threats” on campus, the commission said.
It said its investigation has found that Huang’s firing was favored by the Chun Feng Briefing, citing records of meetings from the first half of 1983, when Huang was reported by “whistle-blowers” as having made improper comments and was branded an “extremist” for allegedly trying to incite students and participating in “inappropriate activities.”
Records show that the authorities were worried that the university’s development might be hindered if Huang ran for department head and endorsed candidates vying for the leadership of students’ associations, the commission said.
The then-KMT regime’s crackdown on Huang did not cease after his firing, the commission said, adding that the party contacted other schools to prevent Huang from taking up teaching positions at them.
There might be other victims of political interference by the Chun Feng Briefing and campus stability groups, the commission said, adding that it would investigate the matter further to reveal the truth behind on-campus monitoring activities and discover any human rights violations.
The commission called on the KMT to confront its past human rights violations and infringements of constitutional democracy, and refrain from impeding society’s effort to seek reconciliation.
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
RSS