Taiwan to remove all statues of Chinese dictator who stood for ‘One China’ policy

Taiwan’s government has said that it will remove nearly 800 statues of Chiang Kai-Shek, the Chinese military dictator who ruled the island for decades under martial law and supported ‘One China Policy’, a Chinese strategic euphemism that denies Taiwan its right of sovereign existence .

In 2018, Taipei established a transitional justice committee to probe the rule of the former generalissimo, who was president of the Republic of China (ROC) – in China and then in Taiwan – until his death in 1975.

The transnational justice committee recommended to remove the thousands of statues from public spaces.

Speaking to Taiwan’s legislature on Monday (April 21), cabinet official Shih Pu said that the ministry of interior would remove the 760 still remaining statues.

The response came amid criticism that the government was not moving fast enough to remove the Chinese military dictator’s statues.

Taiwan is filled with statues of Chiang. For several decades now, the self-ruled island nation that China claims as its own is embroiled in debate over what to do with them, particularly the largest inside Taipei’s Chiang Kai-shek memorial hall.

Many of them have been moved to a park in northern Taipei, a spot now famous for the thousands of Chiang likenesses arranged around the grounds.

“The defense ministry has said it needs to take into account the military tradition,” Shih told the legislature.

But Chiang also founded present-day Taiwan’s military training academies. So it’s a military tradition to honor Chiang.

Also watch | Taiwan’s pursuit of democracy is not a crime: Tsai Ing-Wen

At the end of China’s civil war in 1949, Chiang, the KMT (Kuomintang) party and millions of supporters fled to Taiwan in defeat. He established the Republic of China government in exile, and ruled Taiwan’s population under a brutal martial law for decades until his death in 1975, when power was transferred to his son. By the end of martial law in 1987, as many as 140,000 people were estimated to have been imprisoned and another 3,000 to 4,000 executed for opposition to the KMT.

(With inputs from agencies)