Taiwan Republic chairman Chilly Chen, a veteran Taiwan independence activist, has once again forced a public discussion of the practice of Chinese hero worship of Chiang Kai-shek by the Republic of China in-exile government controlling Taiwan. Chen makes periodic visits to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall where red paint gets splashed on a giant statue of Chiang to symbolize the blood of the dictator’s many victims.
As with many of Chen’s demonstrations for Taiwan independence, it ended with Chilly being roughed up and hauled out by police and security officers. Chen’s group, Taiwan Republic, is dedicated to liberating Taiwan from the grip of the Republic of China in-exile, an occupation government that has controlled the island for seventy years since the end of World War II.
The United States imposed Chiang’s regime after the war as a temporary occupation government of the former Japanese territory, then called Formosa. Chiang’s loss of the Chinese civil war in 1949 and the Cold War led to America’s offer of the island as a refuge for Chiang and his followers. Local resistance to Chiang’s harsh Kuomintang rule led to four decades of brutal martial law, only lifted in the mid-1980s.
While Taiwan has been mired in “political purgatory” in the words of the District of Columbia U.S. Court of Appeals by a strategic ambiguity, small groups like Taiwan Republic have labored for independence from the imposed Chinese government. Long years of misinformation and uncertainty have left almost everyone confused about Taiwan’s international status left unresolved by the San Francisco Peace Treaty.
Many in America confuse the exiled Republic of China with Taiwan, a mistake not made by Chilly Chen who yearns for his own national flag and sovereign nation. With the current occupation government, Taiwan is banned from the United Nations, kept out of the World Health Organization and Interpol, and forced to compete in the Olympics as Chinese Taipei.
More seriously, because the Republic of China in-exile constitution lays claim to the territory of its former home, Taiwan is threaten by the People’s Republic of China which views the island as unfinished business of the civil war left over from 1949.
Although some argue the Chiang statue is more of a tourist attraction than a shrine, the folks at Taiwan Republic want it torn down. Although the Republic of China government keeps the Chinese hero worship of Chiang a prominent Taipei attraction, the courage of Chilly Chen to put himself in harm’s way for principle shows a real hero.
Richardson Reports 
Has Chilly Chen ever had any courage to say anything about the thesis gate?
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I am unaware if Chilly Chen has made public comment on “thesisgate”. Chilly Chen has been rather busy with trying to rid Taiwan of the ROC.
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