The Voice of America
Date: December 08, 2017
By: Ralph Jennings
TAIPEI — Legislation in Taiwan that opens a probe into the heavy-handed rule of former
Members of a Taiwanese honor guard take part in a change of duty ceremony at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial hall in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Jan. 15, 2016. Taiwan will hold its presidential election on Jan. 16, 2016. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
strongman Chiang Kai-shek stands to distance Taiwanese people from their political rival China.
Parliament on Tuesday passed a bill that obligates the government to dig up archives from the era of Chiang’s deadly suppression of dissent after he moved his Nationalist government from China to Taiwan in the 1940s.
The Act on Promoting Transitional Justice calls further for restoring the reputations of those persecuted and advises the removal of tributes to China such as statues and street names, legislators said.
Seeking clarity of the past
Legislators were able to approve the transitional justice act because the ruling Democratic Progressive Party has controlled parliament as well as the presidency since May 2016, the first time ever that the Nationalist didn’t dominate one or both.
[FULL STORY]
