Peace Memorial Day Taiwan

Some 2,000 protesters took to the streets in Taipei 28 years ago today. They marched past the U.S. consulate towards the Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau peacefully, demanding resignation of its director and punishment for his armed agent whose stray bullet had killed an innocent onlooker. As they continued their march, two Monopoly Bureau agents were found molesting a vendor of untaxed cigarettes in a side street. Both were beaten to death, while another crowd began sacking a branch office of the Monopoly Bureau. Chinese employees were driven out and, if caught, were beaten mercilessly. The crowd then moved towards the Office of the Administer-General of Taiwan to present a petition for reform. When the protestors reached a wide intersection adjacent to the government grounds, machine guns mounted on the government building opened fire without warning. At least four protestors were killed. The shooting, which dispersed the crowd, was the signal for a citywide outburst of anger against the mainlander Chinese, regardless of rank or occupation. Many mainlanders unsecured loans were killed, their cars burned and houses sacked. The February 28 Incident started.

Untold thousands of innocent people were killed in the incident, which spawned the feud between the natives of Taiwan and the Chinese from the mainland. The mutual enmity had been almost disarmed by the time February 28 was proclaimed a national holiday in 1998. It was renewed, with a vengeance, after 2000, however. To allay the hostility, President Chen Shui-bian had to promise James Soong, Chinese-born chairman of the People First Party, four days before Peace Memorial Day that “any form of language or behavior which constitutes discrimination or aggression toward any ethnic group shall be subject to punishment according to law.”

As a matter of fact, no law has to be enacted to help end the communal feud, which was for a very brief period of time all but forgotten. With the support of President Lee Teng-hui, Soong was easily elected governor of Taiwan in 1994. In 1998, Lee called Chinese-born Ma Ying-jeou a new Taiwanese, helping him unseat the incumbent mayor of Taipei, Shen Shui-bian. Both outpolled their native-born opponents, because the electorate was not split along the mainlander-Taiwanese line. All President Chen has to do now to restore communal harmony is to stop resorting to “any form of language or behavior which constitutes discrimination or aggression” against the immigrants from China after 1945 and their Taiwanese-born offspring and make sure his followers follow suit. bad credit loans

The question is how sincere President Chen was when he made that promise. It was made at the Government Guest House, where the president had presented a gift to the opposition party leader before their talks. The irony is that that gift is a calligraphic work by a centenarian master who wrote “sincerity,” which both Chen and Soong seem to lack.