World
Taiwan grapples with divisive history as new president prepares for power
Taipei, Taiwan – Even as Taiwan prepares for the inauguration of its eighth president next week, it continues to struggle over the legacy of the island’s first president, Chiang Kai-shek.
To some, Chiang was the “generalissimo” who liberated the Taiwanese from the Japanese colonisers. To many others, he was the oppressor-in-chief who declared martial law and ushered in the period of White Terror that would last until 1992.
For decades, these duelling narratives have divided Taiwan’s society and a recent push for transitional justice only seems to have deepened the fault lines. Now, the division is raising concern about whether it might affect Taiwan’s ability to mount a unified defence against China, which has become increasingly assertive in its claim over the self-ruled island.
“There is a concern when push comes to shove if the civilians work well with the military to defend Taiwan,” said historian Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang of the University of Missouri in the United States.
On February 28, 1947, Chiang’s newly-arrived Kuomintang (KMT) troops suppressed an uprising by Taiwan natives, killing as many as 28,000 people in what became known as the February 28 Incident. In the four-decade-long martial law era that followed, thousands more perished.
This traumatic history met its official reckoning in 2018, when the Taiwan government set up its Transitional Justice Commission modelled after truth and reconciliation initiatives in Africa, Latin America and North America to redress historical human rights abuses and other atrocities.
When the commission concluded in May 2022, however, advocates and observers said they had seen little truth and hardly any reconciliation.
Almost from the first days of the commission, the meting-out of transitional justice became politicised across the blue-versus-green demarcation that has long defined Taiwan’s sociopolitical landscape, with blue representing KMT supporters and green the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
A recently published anthology entitled Ethics of Historical Memory: From Transitional Justice to Overcoming the Past explains how the way Taiwanese remember the past shapes how they think about transitional justice. And as that recollection is determined by which camp they support, each champions their own version of Taiwan’s history.
“That’s why transitional justice seems so stagnant now,” explained Jimmy Chia-Shin Hsu, research professor at the legal research institute Academia Sinica who contributed to and edited the book. “Whatever truth it uncovers would be mired in the blue-green narrative.”
A non-partisan view, Hsu said, is to credit the DPP with codifying transitional justice and Lee Teng-hui, the first democratically elected KMT president, with breaking the taboo on broaching the February 28 Incident.
The past shaping the future
In February, Betty Wei attended the commemoration for the February 28 incident for the first time and listened intently to the oral history collected from the survivors. Wei, 30, said she wanted to learn more about what happened because her secondary school textbook had brushed over what many consider a watershed event in a few cryptic lines, and many of her contemporaries showed little interest.
“In recent years the voices pushing for transitional justice have grown muted,” Wei told Al Jazeera. “A lot of people in my generation think the scores are for previous generations to settle.”
In Taiwan, the past is never past, and rather it is fodder for new fights.
As the DPP gears up for an unprecedented third consecutive term, the unfinished business of removing the island’s remaining statues of Chiang has resurfaced as the latest front in what Yang, the historian, described to Al Jazeera as “this memory war”.
More than half of the initial 1,500 monuments have been taken down over the past two years, with the remaining statues mostly on military installations.
Yang argues that is because the top brass rose through the ranks under martial law and many still regard Chiang as their leader, warts and all. For them, toppling the statues would be an attack on their history.
The statues embody “the historical legacy the military wants to keep alive,” Yang said. “That’s a source of tension between the military and the DPP government.”
On the eve of William Lai Ching-te taking his oath as the island’s next president, Taiwanese will for the first time mark the “White Terror Memorial Day” on May 19, the day when martial law was declared in 1949.
While it is clear Taiwanese have promised to never forget, whom and how to forgive has become far murkier.
As the former chairman of the Taiwan Association for Truth and Reconciliation, the first NGO advocating for the cause, Cheng-Yi Huang lauded the government’s move to take over the KMT’s private archives in recent years but lamented there had been too little truth-seeking so far.
For example, under the February 28 Incident Disposition and Compensation Act, Huang said many have chosen to stay silent about their complicity because only victims get compensation.
However, Taiwan’s tumultuous history means the line between victim and victimiser is rarely clear-cut.
By digging into military archives, Yang has shed light on how Chinese were kidnapped and pressed into service by the KMT in the last years of the Chinese Civil War. Those who tried to flee were tortured and even murdered. And the native Taiwanese who rose up to resist KMT’s suppression were persecuted as communists.
“Under martial law, the military was seen as an arm of the dictatorship, but they were also victims of the dictator’s regime,” Yang told Al Jazeera. “The transitional justice movement has missed the opportunity to reconcile Taiwanese society with the military.”
To Hsu, Beijing’s belligerence demands Taiwanese of all stripes find a common cause.
“As we’re facing the threat from the Chinese Communist Party, it’s imperative that we unite in forging a collective future,” said Hsu, to a standing-room-only book talk during the Taipei International Book Exhibition in late February.
“And how we remember our past will shape this future of ours.”
UPDATE, 12/25, 4:30 p.m. PT: Netflix said it will provide on-demand access to the full halftime performance of “Beyoncé Bowl” as a stand-alone special “later this week.” The 20-minute spectacle — her first live TV performance in four years — featured Post Malone, Shaboozey and her daughter Blue Ivy Carter to debut tracks from “Cowboy Carter” for the first time in a live setting.
EARLIER:
Beyoncé will light up the Houston night on Christmas with a halftime performance during the Ravens-Texans game on Netflix. To watch it, you’ll have to tune in live on Dec. 25 — otherwise, you’ll have only a few hours to catch the replay on Netflix.
Queen Bey’s Xmas performance will feature her first live performances of songs from “Cowboy Carter.” She’ll take the stage in her hometown during halftime of the Baltimore Ravens-Houston Texans matchup at NRG Stadium in Houston.
Netflix, as part of its accelerating push into live sports, snagged global rights to the NFL’s two Christmas Day 2024 games: the Kansas City Chiefs at the Pittsburgh Steelers (starting at 1 p.m. ET), followed by the Ravens-Texans game (4:30 p.m. ET).
Under Netflix’s agreement with the NFL, in the U.S., the two Christmas games expire three hours after the livestream ends (meaning Beyoncé’s performance and the Ravens-Texans game will no longer be available to rewatch on Netflix as of around 11 p.m. ET). Outside the U.S., the games expire on Netflix 24 hours after the livestream ends. The NFL livestreams will include ad breaks, even for Netflix subscribers on no-ads plans.
Few details are available for Beyoncé’s Christmas halftime show, but according to Netflix she is expected to bring along some “special guests” who are featured on “Cowboy Carter.” She’s a veteran of two Super Bowls: Beyoncé was the halftime performer for the 2013 game in New Orleans, which featured a Destiny’s Child reunion; and in 2016, she sang “Formation” when Coldplay was the headliner act.
On Christmas Day, Netflix’s pregame coverage will kick off at 11 a.m. ET, from NFL Network’s studios in L.A. and Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh. The streamer has tapped Mariah Carey to deliver a recorded performance of her record-breaking holiday hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” before both of the day’s two games.
If you missed the window for Netflix’s NFL livestreams, you still have the chance to catch the reruns. As it stands right now, NFL Network is scheduled to re-air Ravens-Texans on Wednesday, Dec. 25, at 11:30 p.m. ET and Thursday, Dec. 26, at 5 a.m. ET. The channel will re-air Chiefs-Steelers on Dec. 25 at 8:30 p.m. ET and Dec. 26 at 2 a.m. ET. There is the possibility for additional re-airs but portions of the NFL Network’s programming schedule are still being determined. In addition, replays of both games will be available with NFL+ Premium ($14.99/month) in the U.S. and via DAZN internationally.
Note also that the two Netflix Christmas Day games will air on broadcast TV in the competing teams’ local markets and will be available live on U.S. mobile devices with an NFL+ subscription.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy excoriated Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday for launching attacks against energy infrastructure on Christmas Day.
Zelenskyy suggested the attacks were “inhumane,” but said they would not ruin Christmas.
“Today, Putin deliberately chose Christmas for an attack. What could be more inhumane? Over 70 missiles, including ballistic ones, and more than a hundred attack drones. The targets are our energy infrastructure. They continue to fight for a blackout in Ukraine,” he declared in a post on X.
The Russian Defence Ministry acknowledged a “massive strike” on its part, saying it hit energy facilities that supported Ukraine’s “military-industrial complex,” Reuters reported.
“The aim of the strike was achieved. All facilities have been hit,” the ministry said.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy talks with the media during the European Council Meeting in Brussels on Thursday. (Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images)
Strikes against Ukrainian fuel and energy sources involved 78 air, ground and sea-launched missiles, in addition to 106 Shaheds and other kinds of drones, Ukraine’s air force claimed, according to The Associated Press.
“Unfortunately, there have been hits. As of now, there are power outages in several regions. Power engineers are working to restore power supply as soon as possible,” Zelenskyy noted.
Still, the Ukrainian leader declared that “Russian evil will not break Ukraine and will not spoil Christmas.”
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Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow on Thursday. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images)
The U.S. has provided billions of dollars’ worth of aid to help Ukraine fight the Russian onslaught that erupted in 2022, but Americans and their congressional representatives have been divided regarding whether the U.S. should continue supplying aid to Ukraine.
President-elect Trump, who will take office on Jan. 20, has called for a cease-fire and negotiations.
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President-elect Trump looks on during Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix on Sunday. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
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In a post on Truth Social this month, Trump declared that “Zelenskyy and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness. They have ridiculously lost 400,000 soldiers, and many more civilians. There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin.”
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Journalists from Al-Quds Today were covering events at al-Awda Hospital when their vehicle was struck.
Five journalists have been killed in an Israeli strike in the vicinity of a hospital in central Gaza, according to Palestinian authorities and media reports.
The journalists from the Al-Quds Today channel were covering events near al-Awda Hospital, located in the Nuseirat refugee camp, when their broadcasting van was hit by an Israeli air strike, Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif reported early on Thursday morning.
Footage from the scene circulating on social media shows a vehicle engulfed in flames.
A screenshot taken from a video of the white-coloured van shows the word “press” in large red lettering across the back of the vehicle.
The deceased journalists have been named as Fadi Hassouna, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Ali, Mohammed al-Ladah, Faisal Abu al-Qumsan and Ayman al-Jadi.
Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif said that Ayman al-Jadi had been waiting for his wife in front of the hospital while she was in labour to give birth to their first child.
Breaking: Five journalists lost their lives after their vehicle was incinerated in an Israeli airstrike targeting the broadcasting van of “Al-Quds Today” channel while covering events near Al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/oiAmxgZwO5
— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) December 26, 2024
Civil defence teams retrieved the bodies of the victims and extinguished a fire at the scene, the Quds News Network said.
There was no immediate comment from Israeli authorities.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) earlier this month condemned Israel’s killing of four Palestinian journalists in the space of a week, calling on the international community to hold the country accountable for its attacks against the media.
At least 141 journalists have been killed in Israel’s war in Gaza since October 7, 2023, according to the CPJ.
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