In the forty years since Chen’s death, within Taiwan and in its diaspora, Chen has been remembered as a kind and courageous person, a brilliant scholar, a loving husband and father, and a martyr for Taiwan independence. And yet, percolating around the edges, were hints of more complicated narratives...
Controversy has broken out regarding recent actions by the National Taiwan University administration. Namely, the university administration is accused of responding to efforts to set up a transitional justice committee to address symbols of authoritarianism that remain on the NTU campus with disinformation...
The apparent inability of the Transitional Justice Commission to confirm that the 1980 murders of Lin Yi-hsiung’s family were murders committed by the Taiwan Garrison Command or other state security forces points to the dilemmas of reckoning with political crimes committed during Taiwan’s authoritarian period. The Transitional Justice Commission recently announced that, according to its investigations of the murders, state security forces were “likely” involved but did not state any definitive conclusion as to if they were...
Mayor Ko’s comments regarding the Taiwanese American community earlier this month come off as both insulting and ignorant. Mayor Ko does not seem to have any respect for the “independence activists” and “Taiwan lovers” who are currently residing abroad after being forced to flee authoritarian Taiwan...
The long path for transitional justice to be achieved in Taiwan is evident in the challenges faced by efforts to bring the truth of major incidents during the White Terror to light. President Tsai Ing-wen vowed to do so in July through declassifying the files of the National Security Bureau and other institutions of the ROC state that carried out political persecutions on behalf of the KMT during the authoritarian period...
On the 72nd anniversary of the 228 Massacre, it should be clear that a long path remains to be walked to realize transitional justice in Taiwan. This is visible in a number of recent incidents...
Anger has broken out after the KMT disrupted a meeting of the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee confirming the budget of the Transitional Justice Commission and its plans for the upcoming year. A picture of KMT members knocking over a table and looking as though they intended to attack Yang Tsui, the chair of the commission and a family member of a White Terror victim, subsequently went viral on the Internet, further stoking outrage...
Controversy broke out recently following a PXMart commercial featuring a man who appeared to be murdered political dissident Chen Wen-Chen. Two other White Terror-themed commercials would later be released on the Internet. Although the controversy was more a tempest in a teapot than anything, we might still take a look as to why PXMart would produce a series of White Terror-themed commercials...
On the 71st anniversary of the 228 Massacre, it bears keeping mind that the time from now in which the last surviving individuals that lived through the 228 Massacre will no longer be with us...
Comments by Wang Ping-Chung of the New Party in an op-ed submitted by Wang to a Chinese state-run media outlet, the Global Times, have provoked outrage, due to Wang stating outright in the op-ed that “China cannot wait for unification". Wang, a prominent figure of the New Party, is currently under scrutiny due to charges that he operated a news outlet for China aimed at pro-unification views in Taiwan, with the aim of eventually developing an espionage network for China...
