Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Seoul does transitional justice right

Chang Kuo-tsai 張國財

On May 18, 1980, students in Gwangju, South Korea, rallied against martial law. The Gwangju Uprising was soon suppressed, as then-South Korean general Chun Doo-hwan sent in troops to crush the protests. Consequently, 154 people were killed, 70 people disappeared and 3,028 were injured.

Fortunately, thanks to photographs taken by German reporter Jurgen Hinzpeter, the world learned the truth. After Chun became South Korean president later that year, the uprising was defined as a rebellion instigated by communists and their sympathizers.

Ma visit paves way for annexation

Lionel Te-Chen Chiou 丘德真

At first glance, former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) visit to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) seems to be a step to “ensure peace and avoid war.”

However, Ma’s speeches during the trip regarding the “one China” narrative help justify China’s military expansionism and put Taiwan at risk. Ma provides the PRC with a political discourse to rationalize an invasion of Taiwan, which resembles the rhetoric applied by Nazi Germany on the annexation of Austria and Russian President Vladimir Putin on invading Ukraine.

Tsai, McCarthy reaffirm partnership

Taipei Times

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy reaffirmed the strong partnership between Taiwan and the US, and their commitment to safeguarding regional stability, following their meeting in California on Wednesday.

“I believe our bond is stronger now than at any time or point in my lifetime,” McCarthy told a joint news conference with Tsai following a two-hour closed-door meeting at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.

Ma yet to answer for police violence

Pan Kuan 潘寬

Nine years have passed since March 30, 2014, when half a million people gathered on Taipei’s Ketagalan Boulevard to protest against the Cross-Strait Agreement on Trade in Services. While originally intended to express concern about the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government throwing Taiwan’s door wide open to China, the rally also voiced widespread disapproval of police’s bloody dispersal of protesters occupying part of the Executive Yuan, which had happened one week earlier, in the early hours of March 24.

Unfortunately, then-premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and other government officials who instigated the police deployment have never been called to account, and neither have the police officers who acted violently, but who, according to the police, “could not be identified.”

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