TAIWAN-POLITICS/STATUES Abandoned statues of ex-Taiwan leader: a foreboding for current government?

Record ID: 147710

  • Title: TAIWAN-POLITICS/STATUES Abandoned statues of ex-Taiwan leader: a foreboding for current government?
  • Date: 10th July 2015
  • Summary: TAOYUAN COUNTY, TAIWAN (RECENT - JULY 5, 2015) (REUTERS) CIHU MEMORIAL STATUE PARK MAN WALKING ON PATHWAY AROUND CIHU MEMORIAL STATUE PARK STATUES OF FORMER TAIWANESE LEADER CHIANG KAI-SHEK VARIOUS OF TOURISTS WALKING BY STATUES IN PARK STATUE OF CHIANG HOLDING A BOOK VARIOUS OF CHIANG AND CHINESE REVOLUTIONARY SUN YAT-SEN STATUES (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) 25-YEAR-OLD TAIWANE
  • Embargoed: 25th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA2OE9VHNXPOZE4SQLM7Y08Y7N0
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Dumped outside former Taiwanese leader Chiang Kai-shek's mausoleum are nearly 200 unwanted statues of the Nationalist Party hero, a metaphor for the likely punishment his party faces in the January elections for pushing the self-ruled island too close to political foe China.
    Cast in bronze and in different shades of red, brown, grey and blue, the generalissimo is saluting, holding a book, leaning on a cane, sitting regally or perched on a plinth. Some of them have spider webs dangling from it.
    Between 2000 and 2008, former President Chen Shui-bian from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party ordered them to be taken down from public display and sent to the wooded, lakeside park in Taoyuan.
    For many tourists such as 25-year-old Wu Ya-ting, the statues are nothing but a pleasant attraction.
    "I don't think there's any sensitive issue (here). I just feel that this place is really pretty so we came here (for a visit). We just regard it as a place we come when we take the day off," said Wu.
    The Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT) in Chinese, is expected to be dealt a thrashing in the January presidential poll by the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
    It will be result likely to irritate giant neighbour China, though no one expects their close economic ties to unravel.
    In March 2014, a coalition of student and civil groups organised mass protests in streets near the Presidential Palace and the parliament building that has been occupied by protesters for nearly a fortnight.
    The rally in Taipei against a trade deal with China, was one of the largest in recent years in Taiwan, an island that split from China over six decades ago after a civil war.
    Kuomintang has been in crisis mode since November when it lost power in local elections. The defeat paved the way for Hung Hsiu-chu to step up as its only prospective presidential candidate. But her stated intention of signing a peace treaty with China has rubbed a lot of party cadres the wrong way.
    The election result was seen as a vote against President Ma Ying-jeou's China-friendly policies. Democratically minded young and middle-class Taiwanese, unhappy with slowing economic growth and stagnant wages, remain suspicious of China's intentions and see only big business prospering from closer ties.
    Campaign jockeying and factional infighting are pushing members away from a party that numbered well over a million in 2000 but is now down to about 890,000, with only about a third of them active.
    For many Taiwanese, their opinion of the KMT has grown increasingly lower within the past few years.
    "The KMT has been conniving with many groups to do things they shouldn't be doing, such as creating social disorder. I think they really ignore letting us people know about what's happening around this world. As other countries are progressing, Taiwan is regressing. That's roughly how it is," said Taipei resident May Lee.
    Former KMT member Justin Chen said that infighting and a variety of other problems are causing massive losses in elections for the KMT.
    "If KMT itself won't unite, other political parties will have a chance to compete with the KMT for regional legislative (seats), which means that the KMT-led coalition parties will clash with each other. I am afraid that the result would be that they would trample all over each other, which would be troublesome," said Chen.
    China is Taiwan's largest trading partner, and has preferred to deal with the party of Chiang Kai-shek that retreated to Taiwan after losing the Chinese civil war in 1949.
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