Michael Turton has an excellent write-up of a talk given by Linda Arrigo yesterday. Arrigo was deeply involved in the fight for democracy in the 70s and 80s, and gives a first hand account of what happened.
How many prisoners went through the system? Arrigo said that Shih estimated about 80,000. Some estimates went as high as 130,000. To put that in perspective, the population of Taiwan in 1960 was about 12 million. There was a considerably interplay of mainlanders who were pro-Taiwan independence, Chinese nationalists who were disgusted with the KMT’s exploitation of Chinese nationalism for its own power and similar types in this period.
Anyone who is interested in how Taiwan became the democracy it is today should read the whole thing.
David, I love the new look. I’m not sure how long ago you switched because I keep track of Jujuflop via an RSS feed now days. Sleek and sophisticated. Looking good.
I agree with MZT.
David, could the paralyzing of the Control Yuan be related to the asset sales by the KMT? Sales of quasi-public property fall under its aegis. With the Control Yuan DOA, it can’t investigate KMT asset sales…
Michael
Thanks guys.
Michael: I think you are ‘thinking too much’ (to coin a local phrase). The control yuan doesn’t have any control over the KMT, and can’t decide whether assets which the KMT controls should be government owned. I think both sides are just standing on ‘principal’ and think they can’t be seen to back down now.