Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Symbols’ removal needs consensus

Taipei Times

The government might consider a plan to convert the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall into a space that honors all former presidents, Minister Without Portfolio Lin Wan-i (林萬億) said on Wednesday. Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) had made the suggestion on Tuesday, but Lin said that no decision would be made on what to do with the hall any time soon.

The implementation of the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例), which aims to remove authoritarian-era symbols and address miscarriages of justice from that era, has proved socially divisive since the law was passed by the Legislative Yuan on Dec. 5, 2017.

No ‘rights’ to celebrate

Taipei Times Editorial

The Lunar New Year is traditionally a time for family reunions and celebrations, which made the news this week that Lee Ching-yu (李凈瑜) has been barred once again by Chinese authorities from visiting her husband, Lee Ming-che (李明哲), for several months a hard blow for his family, friends and supporters.

In keeping with Chinese Communist Party tradition, wives and other relatives of those the Chinese government has imprisoned or detained without trial need to be punished as well, through enforced isolation, loss of jobs or schooling, and a myriad of other petty, vindictive measures.

Time for a serious discussion

Taipei Times Editorial

Since taking office, the one thing President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has been reluctant to do is break the decades-long ambiguity surrounding the “status quo,” the one term that manages to trump the so-called “1992 consensus” in terms of the variety of definitions given to them.

Fortunately, that is expected to change later this year. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told the state-owned Central News Agency in an interview that the party plans to introduce a new resolution in September that could offer a clearer definition of the “status quo.”

Hong Kong and Taiwan are different

Taipei Times Editorial

On Tuesday, three prominent Hong Kong democracy advocates attended a forum at National Chengchi University to share their experiences of living under China’s “one country, two systems” model.

University of Hong Kong law professor Benny Tai (戴耀廷), retired sociologist Chan Kin-man (陳健民) and retired pastor Chu Yiu-ming (朱耀明), known as the “Occupy Central Three,” are facing several years in jail for opposing the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) governance of the territory, as they are accused of inciting the 2014 pro-democracy movement.

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