Saturday, August 22, 2015

Ko comes under fire from pro-independence groups

Ko comes under fire from pro-independence groups

By Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter

908 Taiwan Republic Campaign founder Peter Wang voices the group’s dissatisfaction with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s cross-strait statements in front of Taipei City Hall yesterday.

Photo: Tu Chu-min, Taipei Times

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday came under fire from pro-independence groups for a remark he made in Shanghai earlier this week that Taiwan and China belonged to “one family.”
Members of the 908 Taiwan Republic Campaign yesterday protested in front of the Taipei City Government building, demanding an apology from Ko for what they called his “inappropriate” remark.
Group founder Peter Wang (王獻極) said that Taiwan and China are two nations and enemies with each other.
“Under this circumstance, how can we be in ‘one family’?” he asked.
He said Ko had “kissed up” to Beijing and that he had won last year’s mayoral election by “swindling” Taipei voters, citing a pre-election press conference held by a group at which Ko tore up his Republic of China (ROC) identification card and received a symbolic “Taiwan Republic” identification card.
He said that Ko’s stance on cross-strait issues is even worse than the “one China, different interpretations” stance adopted by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Group director Chilly Chen (陳峻涵) said that if Taiwan and China were to be one family, China should first withdraw all of its missiles targeting Taiwan and acknowledge Taiwan as a nation.
Ko rejected the allegations that he had swindled his way to his post as Taipei mayor and changed his position on Taiwan’s identity.
Asked to comment on the criticism during a meeting to discuss city policies, Ko said: “I did not swindle votes. If that [ripping his ROC identity card] was swindling, people’s votes, I was doing it from day one. There was no sudden change in direction,” he said.
With reference to his trip to Shanghai earlier this week, he said: “I told officials at the [People’s Republic of China’s] Taiwan Affairs Office that it was China that decided to abandon us [Taiwan] in 1895, and now it expects us to go back. I told them: ‘You need to think about how others feel sometimes,’” he said.
On why he had not informed reporters that he had been scheduled to meet with Taiwan Affairs Office Liaison Bureau Director Liu Junchuan (劉軍川) on Tuesday, he said that Chinese officials arranged the meeting only after assessing his behavior during the first day of his visit.

Saturday, August 8, 2015

Chiang Kai-shek statues become targets as Taiwanese confront nation’s history

FEATURE: Chiang Kai-shek statues become targets as Taiwanese confront nation’s history

AFP, TAIPEI

Though still seen as a hero by some in Taiwan for waging war against communist China under the banner of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) has long been a divisive figure in the nation.
His role in the White Terror era and his imposition of martial law have led many to brand him a dictator synonymous with the authoritarianism that wary Taiwanese now equate with the rule in China.
Fears over increased Chinese influence have grown since 2008 under President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) KMT government, which has forged a rapprochement with Beijing.
Chiang’s authoritarianism has outweighed his Nationalist credentials and his image is wrapped up in that concern, with young people in particular feeling strongly that his memory should not be celebrated.
“Chiang was a dictator. For a long time, freedom of speech in Taiwan was suppressed,” said Peter Chu, 23, a graduate student at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. “Why should his statues be allowed to remain on any campus?”
“There have been calls for removing the statue [at my school], but the school authorities have done nothing about it,” said student and former Anti-Curriculum Changes Alliance convener Chu Chen (朱震), 18, who attends the prestigious Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School. “Every year, graduates decorate the statue mocking it.”
Students most recently decked it out the figure in an E.T. costume, with a helmet and wings. The animosity is not all about avenging the past.
Chu Chen is part of a campaign against what protesters call “China-centric” changes to high-school curriculum guidelines by the ruling pro-China KMT government.
He said youngsters’ anti-Chiang sentiment stems from the same drive: to take control of their own destinies.
“Chiang Kai-shek was a symbol of Taiwan’s past authoritarian rule. So is the new curriculum, which has forced us into obeying something we think is not right. The objection shares the same reason,” he said.
As leader of the KMT, Chiang fought a civil war in China and with the Chinese communists before being defeated and fleeing to Taiwan in 1949, where he imposed martial law. Chiang died in 1975.
Political opposition was banned and newspapers barred until martial law was eventually lifted in 1987.
However, it was an incident 50 years previously that first sparked Taiwanese resentment.
The 228 Incident, an uprising that began on Feb. 27, 1947, saw troops brutally quell an anti-government uprising triggered when an inspector beat a woman selling untaxed cigarettes in Taipei. Thousands of people were tortured and killed during the subsequent White Terror era.
Though Chiang was not in Taiwan for the 228 Incident, he has been held responsible for ordering the army to step in, and it has become an easy symbol for the animosity against him, which becomes particularly pronounced on the anniversary.
There were a record 30 attacks on statues of Chiang on Feb. 28 this year, with one beheaded and others smeared with red paint.
“Many of the attacks [on statues] were done by students, who believe Chiang is the icon not only of the [KMT’s] authoritarian rule of Taiwan, but also of a regime from China,” said Shih Cheng-feng (施正鋒) of National Dong Hwa University. “As Chiang’s statues are on every corner, they have easily become the targets of growing anti-China sentiment.”
Chiang’s public profile was steadily eroded under the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration from 2000 to 2008, with statues removed and street names changed.
Traditionally Beijing-skeptic and pro-independence, the DPP changed the name of the nation’s main airport from Chiang Kai-shek International Airport to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and dropped his memorial day as an official holiday.
Schools were asked to stop singing songs portraying him as a “national savior” and “great world leader.”
However, some iconography survived. In March, Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) of the DPP ordered the removal of Chiang statues from 16 schools.
“Chiang’s statues have political implications and are very controversial. They should be removed,” Lai said.
They were sent to a museum in Taoyuan which also houses Chiang’s mausoleum. In recent years, it has become a graveyard of unwanted Chiang icons, with 218 statues currently on display. Officials there expect numbers to rise as more are discarded.
Three Taiwanese presidents, including Ma, have apologized to the families of the 228 Incident victims. They were given compensation after a government investigation said that Chiang “should bear the biggest responsibility” for the incident.
Yet, bitterness remains.
“The transition of justice has not been completed,” Taipei-based rights lawyer Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said. “Despite a democracy, the remnants of the authoritarian ruling, like Chiang’s statues, still stand.”