A noted figure in Taiwan’s democracy movement was yesterday implicated as an informant of the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime during the White Terror era.
Lee Chiu-yuan (李秋遠) — a founding member of the China Democratic Party — informed the government of a plan by democracy advocate Su Tung-chi (蘇東啟), leading to his arrest, Academia Historica said at the book launch of The Su Tung-chi Case: A Collection of Historical Documents (蘇東啟案史料彙編) in Taipei.
Lee served in the National Security Council in 2000, under then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). He died in 2005.
The Su case is representative of the fate of Taiwanese independence advocates, Academia Historica president Chen Yi-shen (陳儀深) told the event.
The book, comprising four volumes of primary sources, details how Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) rule relied on secret police informants, he said.
Taiwanese who opposed the regime were targeted, as the government feared that they might take up arms against it, he added.
Tsai Kuan-yu (蔡寬裕), a survivor of political persecution, told the event that he was “surprised” when he learned about Lee’s complicity.
In 1961, Su planned to recruit ethnic Taiwanese members of the Marine Corps for an armed uprising against the government. He was motivated by the purge of the editor of and contributors to the Free China Journal, thinking that the incident showed that peaceful reform was not possible, the book shows.
Su told Lee about the plan, and the latter informed the National Security Bureau, which then arrested Su and about 50 other dissidents, citing information from a “highly placed informant,” the book shows.
Previously, Lee informed the bureau of four attempts to organize political parties in opposition to the KMT, with his spy activities including wearing a wire on one occasion, it shows.
Su was in 1962 sentenced to death by a military tribunal, but the sentence was later commuted to life in prison amid pressure on Chiang’s regime. Su remained in prison until a general pardon in 1975 after Chiang’s death. Su died in 1992.
His daughter, Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬), is a legislator representing a constituency in Yunlin County.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS