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By Chen Yu-fu / Staff reporter
A Chinese national in the US yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of being “as brutal as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)” after an incident on Sunday in which a person asking a question at an event attended by (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) was allegedly assaulted and choked.
In a speech called “Peace and Prosperity Tour of the US, China and Taiwan” to the local overseas Taiwanese community in Los Angeles, Cheng said Taiwan’s smooth democratization was possible because most KMT members genuinely believed in democracy and did not hinder the process.
During the event, some Chinese anti-communist attendees accused Cheng of “selling out Taiwan.” Others challenged her, asking that if the KMT considers itself a democratic party, why it had not helped promote democracy in China and why it was “colluding with the CCP” instead of supporting the Chinese people’s democratic aspirations.
Photo: Screen grab from YouTube
One person was reportedly pushed to the ground and dragged away by staff during the confrontation.
After the incident, a man surnamed Su (蘇) wrote on social media that questions at the event were pre-submitted and subject to screening. He said he asked his questions out loud during the final Q&A segment after Cheng’s speech, and was subsequently escorted out of the venue.
Su said that China Democracy Party member Le Zailin (樂在霖) was “violently knocked to the ground by KMT [members] who grabbed him by the neck and covered his mouth to stop him from ‘calling for democracy and freedom.’”
He said that phones were seized to prevent recording and that other people were pressured to delete video recordings.
He criticized the incident, saying the KMT was acting “as brutally as the CCP,” accusing it of hypocrisy, authoritarianism and suppressing dissent while still claiming to be a democratic party.
Su added that they had been allowed into the venue by organizers and were wearing yellow wristbands issued on entry and so were not trespassing.
