Article 160 of the Criminal Law of the Republic of China:
A person who with purpose to insult the Republic of China openly damages, removes, or dishonors the emblem of the Republic of China or the flag of the Republic of China shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than one year, short-term imprisonment, or a fine of not more than nine thousand dollars.
A person who with purpose to insult the founder the Republic of China, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, openly damages, removes, or dishonors his portrait shall be subject to the same punishment.
What do you think of Taiwanâs criminal law prohibiting citizens from defacing portraits of Sun Yat-sen
Would this be considered a form of personality cult? Deifying Sun Yat-sen?
Well thats not a very stiff penalty. I dont agree with that being illegal but still tame compared to say insulting the King of Thailand in Thailand or cartoons of Mohammed anywhere in the Moslim world⌠Taiwan is a very free country (Cannabis laws aside)
Sun is not the typical target of vandalism. Itâs usually the remaining statues of CKS due to the killings and other forms of state violence he authorized in Taiwan.
CKS is one of the founding fathers of Taiwan for better or for worse.
A society that learns to respect their fathers and accept their misgivings is better for it.
as far as the deaths - you canât make an omelette without breaking some eggs.
Just look at todayâs expendable in Taiwan and the losses that arenât talked about: the unborn children of Taiwan.
Just look at the contemporary leaders - should we allow for their memories to be vandalized as they have allowed Taiwan to have a âmodernâ country at the cost of such a horrible birth rate? How would history view them?
Sun Yat Sen never even visited Taiwan. Never ate betelnut. Never wore blue ćé. Never rode his Vespa over Chungshan bridge at 4 am drunk and with no helmet on.
He is the founder of the ROC but donât take my work for it: the ROC citizens call him the father of the country. Thereâs a station named after him in Taipei.
The heck? Both SYS and CKS were terrible people. Saying this is like saying that a child who was beaten so badly by their abusive parents that they ended up in a coma should learn to respect their parents and accept their misgivings because they brought them into this world. No. People who do terrible things should not be resected despite their misgivings. Their terrible actions should be called out, and they should be shamed for them. People who do bad things should not be put on a pedestal and made to feel important long after they go to their grave.
Mao was hands down the biggest mass murderer in human history, by a landslide. He killed far, far more people than Hitler or Stalin, for sure. Only truly despicable people think of Hitler and Stalin as remotely decent people by any stretch of the imagination. The Chinese people are expected to revere Mao and hold him to a god-like level of importance. Taiwan has moved on and become a democracy wherein laws are intended to protect human rights. They are not required to bow down to dictators and horrible leaders who do or did terrible things. Freedom of speech and freedom to express discontent with the government without repercussions is not optional here. Taiwanese people are finally at a point in their history where they can look back and say, âthose two men were terrible, and we should not allow such terrible actions to be repeated in this countryâ without fear of something terrible happening to them. They should be allowed to act on those realizations. Thatâs how human rights are maintained and countries avoid slipping back into authoritarianism.
If you think that people should respect CKS in any way at all, I beg you to please build yourself a time machine and go back and relive those days in Taiwan. Youâd be alone in that desire.
Notice you didnât say anything at all about SYS except he was a âterribleâ person. The rest of the time you ranted about Mao and CKS, who nobody was defending. Specifics?
(Ooops, see ExpatDad was- to be expected.)
Iâm not gonna argue with someone who canât accept the fact that the founder and father of the ROC is Sun Yat Sen. CKC was number two and the father of the ROC in Taiwan.
Taiwan is the Republic of China. Itâs written all over their government buildings and documents for Pete sake.
Doesnât change the fact that they were terrible people who did terrible things. Plenty of notable people brought about change in the 20th century without being mass murderers. CKS isnât Mao, Hitler, or Stalin level bad, but he is one of the top killers of the 20th century.
elaborate on how abusers should be locked away and shamed and never ever revered and that victims should not ever be forced to show gratitude toward people who did terrible things to them?
Whatâs Iâm interested to k now is: If person A owns paper and pencil, draws him out, the burns that image (that his person [theoretically] owns), what then?
Burning someone elseâs flag or picture I get. Doesnât matter what shape and shade the ink splotches are in. But if one creates it themselves, free to burn? Or is his image some kind of patent level registration trademark type thing?
The founder of the ROC in China was SYS. It collapsed and was replaced by the PRC. Notice that the national day of China is October 1, marking Maoâs proclamation of the PRC in Tiananmen Square on Oct. 1 1949. October 10 is not celebrated as a public holiday in China, nor is Sun Yat-sen recognised as the founder of modern China- that âhonourâ belongs to Mao, and if you want to revere âthe father of his countryâ you can pay your respects to him.
The ROCâs national day was the anniversary of the Wuchang Rebellion in 1911. The KMT proclaimed it to be the national day of the Republic of China until 1949. It was never celebrated in Taiwan until the establishment of the KMT dictatorship in 1945-46. Taiwan currently celebrates it as its national day under the title âTaiwan National Dayâ.
Though the day is not recognised in China, the government of Taiwan uses the date as well as the obsolete name âRepublic of Chinaâ because if it changes either it will get massive retaliation from China, and the government is concerned about the lives of its citizens.