Wei Ming-jen, a Taiwan native hired to build an addition to the century-old Biyung Temple, fixing a flagpole in April. Part of the temple was demolished Wednesday.CreditCreditBilly H.C. Kwok for The New York Times

The New York Times
Date: Sept. 26, 2018
By: Amy Qin and Karoline Kan

HONG KONG — For the last two years, tensions have been brewing in a sleepy Taiwan village after a contractor hired to expand the local Buddhist temple wound up taking over the site, evicting the nuns and converting it into a shrine to the Chinese Communist Party, the historic rivals of the Taiwan government.

This week, those tensions came to a head after county officials moved ahead with plans to raze part of the historic temple. The decision was made after The New York Times reported last week on the temple’s fate, stirring outrage among people in Taiwan who were upset that such a bold display of support for the mainland government could be allowed on the island.

Videos taken from Biyun Temple on Wednesday morning showed three large bulldozers tearing down the exterior of the large temple addition where, for the last two years, the contractor, a man named Wei Ming-jen, had presided over a daily ceremony in which the flags of the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party were hoisted high above the Taiwan countryside.    [FULL  STORY]