Taiwan's new government reopens Chiang Kai-shek mausoleum

Asia-Pacific News

May 31, 2008, 6:56 GMT

Taipei - Thousands of Taiwanese streamed to the mausoleum of late Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT) leader Chiang Kai-shek, reopened Saturday after being shut down by the former government. A long line of visitors, young and old, were shown by Taiwanese television queuing in front of the shrine to pay respects to the late leader, who ruled Taiwan from 1949 to 1975. 'The DPP is dreadful, it is dreadful,' a sobbing elderly visitor was quoted as saying by cable news network TVBS condemning the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government for shutting down the mausoleum in Taoyuan outside Taipei in late December. He was among a number of emotional elderly visitors who had followed the Chiang Kai-shek troops to Taiwan in 1949. The shut down was part of a campaign by the pro-independence DPP government to erase the legacy of the late Chiang and cut the island's historic link with China, before the DPP lost power to the KMT in the March presidential election. After KMT's Ma Ying-jeou was sworn in as president on May 20, the Taoyuan county government - whose leader Chu Li-lun is also a KMT member - decided to reopen from Saturday the mausoleums of both Chiang and his son, late President Chiang Ching-kuo, also closed by the DPP government. Before their closure, the mausoleums were a tourist attraction that had helped Taoyuan county net millions of dollars a year. The reopening is expected to attract Chinese tourists, who will be allowed to visit Taiwan from July 4 under a plan by the KMT government. The mausoleums have been known as a must-see attraction for Chinese visitors curious about the two late leaders, whose KMT government ruled China for several decades before the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Chiang Kai-shek's KMT government ruled Taiwan with an iron fist after losing control of China to the Communists and fleeing across the Taiwan Strait. Chiang Kai-shek died in 1975 and was succeeded by his son, who died in 1988. The DPP government ordered the shutdown on the grounds that Chiang Kai-shek was responsible for sending troops to suppress an uprising in Taiwan in 1947. Tens of thousands of locals were killed two years before the KMT fled to Taiwan.

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Taiwanese PAtriotJun 2nd, 2008 - 03:41:50

I LOVE IT! This deserves to be open, as KMT rule over Taiwan was, is, and will be paradise for us Taiwanese people!

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GoodJun 25th, 2008 - 23:52:35

Most Taiwanese have high regards of Chiang Kai Shek really. Just that we don't say it in public in fear of hurting some people from the mainland.

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SomeoneSep 30th, 2008 - 15:25:53

wow, people really believe in KMT???
did you guys even know how many Taiwanese (good ones) that they killed??
did you guys even know why we don't study Taiwan's OWN history.
it is because KMT doesn't want the people to know the truth of what they did. i mean....DUH.
As you can ask our grandmas, grandpas. They know what happened.
When Chiang Kai-shek came over to Taiwan, they've killed all those who are well educated. Like doctors, etc.
In my grandma's small town, they've prisoned the doctors, or actually killed them, to let the people in the town suffer from sickness.
And who ever disagrees with KMT, they torture them to death.
My grandma even says KMT buried people alive underground.

So i don't knnow why people still respect KMT in the way.

That's so stupid.

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Taiwan's new government reopens Chiang Kai-shek mausoleum

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