South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law in South Korea last night, claiming that the opposition Democratic Party was working with North Korea in order to undermine him...
The DPP legislative caucushas criticized the KMT for efforts to expand the scope of designated historical sites of injustice, as part of legislature that calls for the preservation of such sites for historical memory...
Some feverish media reporting in English, from pan-Blue-leaning media outlets or journalists, has honed in on the prospect of the 760 remaining statues of Chiang Kai-shek being removed from public spaces. This is claimed to be a move likely to provoke China, in that Chiang is seen as a figure associated with China–this despite, of course, that Chiang and the KMT came to Taiwan after their military defeat by the CCP in the Chinese Civil War...
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...