Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The real cause of the 228 Incident

Lee Hsiao-feng 李筱峰

The 228 Incident of 1947 has been interpreted in different ways, depending on the changing political environment and varying political standpoints.

During the martial law period, starting from the time of the 228 Incident itself, the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) offered two official explanations.

Taiwan can’t afford to be silent

Taipei Times Editorial

Amid complaints by Plurkers and concerns by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) following a tip-off from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲), CNN on Sunday corrected its Web site after initially quoting the US National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center as calling Taiwan “Chinese Taipei” in its tsunami watch report.

Despite its initial inertia and lack of awareness, the ministry deserves praise for swiftly responding to Kuan’s alert and requesting that CNN make the correction on its Web site.

Why Ma and KMT must apologize for '228'

Taiwan News Editorial

President Ma Ying-jeou regretfully failed to take advantages of the opportunity to make amends to Taiwan society on behalf of his rightist ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) for the Feb. 28th Massacre of 1947, in which at least 10,000 Taiwan citizens were killed during the suppression of a spontaneous uprising against KMT rule.

In statements to commemorations in Tainan City and Taipei's 228 Peace Park Sunday, Ma displayed his lack of genuine understanding of the Feb. 28th Incident by claiming that the massacre was caused by "the graft and corruption of the government at the time, which caused loss of lives and restrictions and harm to property and liberty and that, with the addition of the poor handling, created the greatest tragedy in Taiwan's modern history."

KMT’s woes can be laid at feet of Ma, King

Lu I-ming 呂一銘

Although President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has access to ample party and government resources allowing him to issue both threats and promises, he stumbled in Saturday’s legislative by-elections. This will have an impact on the year-end special municipality elections, and it also shows that Ma no longer has the ability to arouse enthusiasm among pan-blue supporters — voter turnout on Saturday was less than 40 percent — who no longer feel that supporting Ma gives them a sense of mission.

Some voters have said they “feel nothing.” This has created an atmosphere in which pan-blue supporters feel they must abandon Ma to save the pan-blue camp, and some are beginning to talk about supporting Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強).

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