Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 17 hours ago
President Lai Ching-te attended the annual 228 Incident Memorial Ceremony in Kaohsiung. He says the government is trying to get justice for the victims and their families, but that those in power at the time destroyed evidence to cover up misdeeds. Descendants of 228 victims called for a takedown of authoritarian figures, which are still honored widely in Taiwan today.
Transcript
00:01Honoring the countless victims of Taiwan's 228 incident,
00:05President Lai Qingze places flowers at a memorial in Taiwan's southern city of Kaohsiung
00:09for those that died 79 years ago in a government crackdown led by the Chinese nationalist authorities
00:15beginning on February 28, 1947.
00:19Much of the resistance ended in bloodshed, which has never been punished.
00:23Lai says the government is trying to make progress on getting justice for the victims and their families.
00:28Earlier this month, the National Security Bureau declassified tens of thousands of political archives
00:34from the ensuing martial law period.
00:36But Lai says it still doesn't tell the full story.
00:39This is the most important part of the government.
00:44But I always want to talk to everyone.
00:48It's a very important thing.
00:50In the case of the actual evidence of the state Durban Foundation,
00:55the government and the national history of the city of Rangani's 17 years ago,
01:02the country and the health of the city of Rangani's 17 years ago,
01:10the US was not a matter of spending timePor�� with a huge amount of money with murder.
01:11The government and the U.S. have ended up spending time with murder.
01:13We can have a report on that.
01:16We've seen less time of the national history of the city of Rangani's 17 years ago,
01:18the nation of the city of Rangani's 17 years ago in the city of Rangani's 17 years ago.
01:19We have been presentation and tested for the national history of the museum.
01:20the victims say justice can only come by ensuring that no abuse of authority happens again
01:25and that those in power at the time are not honored.
02:12An estimated 20,000 people died in the months following the 228 incident and it was a precursor
02:18to over three decades of violent martial law when thousands more were executed by the
02:23authoritarian state.
02:25Many political victims and prisoner stories were unable to be told until the late 1980s.
02:30Now nearly eight decades since the 228 incident, February 28th remains a day that forever changed
02:37the lives of so many families' loved ones.
02:40And today, they continue to share their stories, using their voices every year to pass on the
02:45lessons of that history.
02:46Patrick Chen and Tiffany Wong in Kaohsiung for Taiwan Plus.
Comments

Recommended