HATTA VERSUS SUN:KMT councilors said that the DPP was acting swiftly to restore the statue of a Japanese engineer, while a toppled Sun Yat-sen was neglected
Taipei Times
Date: Apr 19, 2017
By: Hung Jui-chin and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer
The Tainan City Council’s first meeting of the year was overshadowed by controversy
China Unification Promotion Party member Lee Cheng-lung holds the severed head of a statue of Japanese engineer Yoichi Hatta in Tainan’s Guantian District on Sunday. Photo taken from Facebook
yesterday, with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) seemingly nearly coming to blows over accusations by the KMT caucus that the city government was showing favoritism in its treatment of statues of Japanese engineer Yoichi Hatta and Republic of China founder Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙).
The KMT caucus said that Tainan Mayor William Lai’s (賴清德) response to the decapitation of a bronze statue of Hatta near the city’s Wushantou Reservoir (烏山頭水庫) contrasted starkly with his response after a statue of Sun in Tang Te-chang Memorial Park (湯德章紀念公園) was toppled in 2014.
The KMT said Lai showed partiality by promising to restore the Hatta statue within one week, while the Sun statue has yet to be replaced or restored.
KMT Tainan City Council caucus secretary-general Wang Chia-chen (王家貞) said she would boycott council meetings “by any means” if the city government fails to completely restore Sun’s statue at its original site before May 8. [FULL STORY]
