Transitional Justice – Taiwan Insight

Heterogeneous Memories of the White Terror: Beyond Nationalist Narratives toward a Shared Moral Ground

20 March 2026 NGA Shi Yeu

Written by Chuan-kai Lin. This article examines the diverse and often overlooked memories of Taiwan’s White Terror, arguing that postwar political violence cannot be fully understood through competing nationalist narratives. Highlighting neglected experiences reveals the heterogeneity among those affected by authoritarian repression. Recognising these fragmented histories, as the article suggests, can move Taiwan’s memory politics beyond identity-based divisions toward a more inclusive and shared moral understanding of the past.

Harmonies Against the Silence: The GongSheng Music Commemoration’s Quest for Justice

18 March 2026 NGA Shi Yeu

Written by Liao Pin-yen. The author, representing the Taiwan Youth Association for Transitional Justice and Kiong-Seng, illustrates how the GongSheng Music Commemoration, a youth-led initiative in Taiwan, reimagines remembrance of the 228 Incident and the White Terror. Through music, exhibitions, storytelling, and NGO participation, the festival bridges generational distance from authoritarian history, advocates for transitional justice, and demonstrates how cultural activism can sustain public memory and civic engagement in contemporary Taiwan.

An Unresolved Political Murder in Taiwan — and Why the Silence Endures

17 March 2026 NGA Shi Yeu

Written by Wang Ting-Yu. The author examines Taiwan’s unresolved 1980 Lin family murders as a test case for transitional justice. He argues that decades of sealed political archives, shielded by expansive claims of “national security,” have obstructed accountability and deepened public distrust rooted in the February 28, 1947, massacre. While recent declassifications signal progress, key files remain inaccessible. He contends that democratic reckoning requires full archival disclosure and institutional transparency, warning that without truth, transitional justice risks becoming symbolic rather than substantive.

Chiang Must Fall? Why Lai Ching-te Won’t Topple Chiang Kai-shek

28 June 2024 Chee-Hann Wu

Written by Dominika Remžová. This article is republished from chinaobservers.eu. The article traces Taiwan’s 228 Incident, White Terror and transitional justice, and critically examines the challenges Lai administration will face in regard to human rights, democratic transitions and pursuit of transitional justice.

Unsettled Transitional Justices: Indigenous Sovereignty and the Limit of Democracy

21 December 2022

Written by Yu Liang (Leeve Palrai). The justice revealed in Siraya’s ruling is in response to the national project of Indigenous transitional justice. Specifically, it responds to the promise of President Tsai Ing-Wen in her 2016 presidential apology that Pingpu groups shall be granted the equal rights and status as fellow Indigenous Taiwanese have. Yet, influential as it is, the idea of indigenous transitional justice in Tsai’s account remains unclear: Who should be held accountable for the erasure of Siraya and other Pingpu groups’ identity and status? When and how did it happen in the first place?

228 Seventy-Four Years On: The Fight for Transitional Justice

7 May 2021 Editor

Written by Tabea Muehlbach. February 28, 2017, marked the 70th anniversary of the 228 Incident, a bloody crackdown on Taiwanese civilians by Nationalist troops in 1947. In 2017, Tsai Ing-wen’s spoke for the first time as a president at the central commemorations in the 228 Peace Park in Taipei. Such ceremonies had become a regular annual instalment not long after Lee Teng-hui apologises to the victims in 1995.

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