A politician and academics yesterday criticized KMT leaders for comparing Afghanistan to Taiwan, asking whether the KMT had forgotten that it fled China and committed atrocities in Taiwan during the White Terror era.
“It was nauseating for me to hear the KMT using what is happening in Afghanistan to mock Taiwanese,” independent Taipei City Councilor Lin Ying-Meng (林穎孟) wrote on Facebook yesterday. “Actually, if it had not fled to Taiwan, the KMT would have been totally wiped out by Chinese communist troops.”
“KMT leaders really have no shame,” she said. “They exploit the tragic events in which Afghan people have suffered death and devastation, with a self-indulgent attitude ... to taunt Taiwanese. Most of the public are disgusted by their remarks, but the KMT’s people believe they are the conquering heroes.”
When the KMT fled to Taiwan, it prolonged the Chinese Civil War, she said, adding: “It is the KMT who brought the war they were engaged in to Taiwan.”
It is a perversion of history to claim that the KMT was safeguarding Taiwan, Lin said.
“When they arrived in Taiwan, they committed atrocities and massacred Taiwanese. Then the KMT imposed a fascist dictatorship on Taiwan,” she said.
Tsai Tung-chieh (蔡東杰), a professor of international relations at National Chung Hsing University said that comparing Taiwan to Afghanistan, “is too simplistic, and lacks logic. It might be valid, if the US was withdrawing all American troops from around the world, or Taiwan-US relations were going downhill.”
“Yet right now, the US still has many troops and bases ... around the world, and Washington is likely to reinforce its military presence in Asia-Pacific region, in the post-Afghanistan war era. Therefore Taiwan would benefit ... as the US pivots to the Asia-Pacific to preserve regional security,” Tsai said.
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A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese
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