President William Lai (賴清德) on Friday sent his condolences to the family of White Terror era victim Tsai Kuan-yu (蔡寬裕), who died a day earlier aged 91, Presidential Office spokesperson Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said.
“May [Tsai’s] spirit of unwavering dedication to the work of transitional justice and deep affection for Taiwan remain with us forever,” Kuo cited Lai as saying in a statement, adding that the president was “saddened” by Tsai’s passing and expressed condolences to Tsai’s family.
Kuo cited Tsai’s involvement in a civil society group which advocated for the rights of those who were politically persecuted during the Martial Law period from 1949 to 1987.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Kuo added that Tsai was also a “key proponent” of the introduction of the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例), paving the way for more government efforts to restore the truth behind state wrongdoings during the White Terror era and compensate those adversely affected.
The White Terror refers to a period of political repression in Taiwan by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government from 1949 to 1992.
Born on Feb. 5, 1933, in Taipei, Tsai was imprisoned twice for a total of 13 years between the 1950s and 1970s.
He was first targeted by the authorities in 1957 and detained for about six months after being accused of inciting his classmates to strike in protest against the government’s handling of the killing of a Taiwanese national by a US military officer, which was later known as the Liu Zi-ran (劉自然) incident.
In 1962, Tsai was apprehended for suspected involvement in pro-Taiwanese independence activities.
This time, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
He was initially imprisoned in the then-Taipei County, but was later transferred to Taitung, where he was embroiled in an attempt by a group of activists outside the prison to occupy the facility by force as part of their pro-Taiwanese activities.
Tsai had agreed to help open the prison gate for the group, but the plan was uncovered before he could take any action.
As a result, Tsai received an additional three-year prison sentence.
After Tsai was released in May 1975, he launched a shoe manufacturing business in Taichung.
He began calling for government redress for political prisoners during the White Terror era after the lifting of martial law in 1987.
In his later years, he continued to volunteer at the National Human Rights Museum, where he gave lectures and guided tours regularly.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS