Although Democrats like to consider themselves the champions of human rights, it was two Republican members of Congress that spoke out in Washington recently and recognized the tragedy of the infamous 228 Massacre in Taiwan.
U.S. Representative Kenny Marchant (R-TX) and Scott Garrett (R-NJ) both inserted remarks into the Congressional Record to note the anniversary of the massacre when Chinese Nationalist troops of the Republic of China murdered and tortured thousands of Taiwanese in 1947 while acting as America's occupation proxy government of the island following Japanese surrender in World War II.
The Congressmen tell the unhappy story in their remarks.
Representative Marchant quoted U.S. Ambassador John L. Stuart, "the economic deterioration of the island and administration of the mainland officials became so bad that on February 28th, 1947, popular resentment erupted into a major rebellion."
Marchant then described in his own words the triggering incident.
"The flashpoint came on the evening of February 27th, 1947, when in Taipei a dispute between a female cigarette vendor and certain armed Monopoly Bureau agents and special police agents triggered civil disorder and open rebellion that lasted for days."
Marchant explains the rebellion, "was violently suppressed during the following weeks by soldiers that had been sent from China by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. Estimates of the number of deaths vary from 10,000 to 30,000."
Representative Garrett also noted the anniversary of the massacre last year comparing it to the Boston Massacre. Garrett described the aftermath of the uprising.
"During the following days, government troops arrived from mainland China. The Chinese soldiers began capturing and executing leading Taiwanese lawyers, doctors, students, and other citizens. It is estimated more than 18,000 lost their lives. During the following four decades, the Chinese Nationalists continued to rule Taiwan with an iron fist under Martial Law that was not lifted until 1987."
"The Massacre had far reaching implications. Over the next half-century, these events helped galvanize Taiwan's struggle for independence."
However, independence never came to the island.
Taiwan remains governed by the Republic of China in-exile. Not recognized by the United States, barred from the United Nations, restricted from the World Health Organization, under threat of invasion from the People's Republic of China, the island is caught in a "strategic ambiguity" that keeps it isolated from its place in the international community.
Last year the District of Columbia U.S. Court of Appeals described the people of Taiwan as "stateless" and living in "political purgatory" and urged President Barack Obama to act "expeditiously" to resolve the matter.
President Obama has not acted on the request from the federal appellate court but instead authorized a $6.4 billion arms deal keeping Taiwan locked in its purgatory and ruled by an exiled Chinese government.
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