The Academia Historica is to publish a compilation of historical materials related to late democracy activist Chen Wen-chen (陳文成), including documents that link Chen’s case to the Kaohsiung Incident, the academy’s curator said.
The records, for which historians previously had to apply for access to view, became available in book form, as well as digitally, starting yesterday, curator Chen Yi-shen (陳儀深) said.
The academy’s role as presidential record-keeper gave it a particular responsibility to publish the materials, which include interrogation transcripts and briefings that were provided to former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), Chen Yi-shen said.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
One of the records’ most important functions, he said, would be to strengthen the historical connection between Chen Wen-chen’s mysterious death in 1981 and the government’s crackdown on a demonstration organized by the Kaohsiung-based political journal Formosa Magazine two years earlier in what came to be known as the Kaohsiung Incident.
Although Chen Wen-chen was spared the events of 1979 because he was working as a mathematics professor in the US, he had come to the authorities’ attention as one of Formosa Magazine’s main financial backers, Chen Yi-shen said.
Chiang’s order — recorded in a December 1979 diary entry — to “cut the roots out” of the magazine, resulted in a much more wide-ranging investigation than is traditionally understood, Chen Yi-shen said.
Chen Wen-chen returned to Taipei on May 20, 1981, to visit his family. On July 2, 1981, he was taken for questioning by the Taiwan Garrison Command, a since-disbanded security force.
While the government said that Chen Wen-chen was released after questioning, his body was discovered the next day on the campus of National Taiwan University.
Transcripts of the interrogation that took place on July 2, as well as briefings later given to Chiang, focus on Chen Wen-chen’s fundraising for the magazine, which he did by collecting donations and sending them by check to activist Shih Ming-te (施明德), the curator said.
Given Chiang’s fear that activists were receiving help from Beijing, the authorities also questioned Chen Wen-chen on the magazine’s political aims, pressing him to admit that its support for multi-party rule was an attempt to foment rebellion against the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Chen Yi-shen said.
By giving academics and the public greater access to these documents, the curator said he believes Chen Wen-chen’s case would be reassessed, allowing it to be seen as an extension of the Kaohsiung Incident rather than something that occurred in isolation.
The greater mystery is how the young activist died, and on this subject, there is still much information that needs to be declassified, he added.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS