The history of KMT student spies and their victims resonates in contemporary era
By James Baron / Contributing reporter
There was an awkward moment during a Q&A session at a book launch in Taipei a couple of months ago. Following his presentation, an author who was visiting Taiwan to promote his work, was challenged about a statement on one of his slides that there had been “no political assassination” during Taiwan’s transition to democracy.
Several counterexamples were provided by audience members. One was the 1981 death of Chen Wen-chen (陳文成), whose body was found on the campus of National Taiwan University (NTU) following interrogation by the Taiwan Garrison Command — the notorious secret police who oversaw White Terror repression.
Although Chen’s death remains unsolved, the evidence indicates the possibility of a state-sanctioned murder. In 2020, Taiwan’s Transitional Justice Commission even concluded that this was the most plausible scenario. …
As this fascinating new book by Wendy Cheng (鄭昕) Island X makes clear, “Chen’s death served as an important catalyst for diasporic activist mobilization against KMT terror.”
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Wendy Cheng 