Via the blogger formerly known as Marmot, China ordered the removal of a recently erected statue of a Korean who assassinated a Japanese leader on Chinese soil.:
The Dong-A Ilbo reports that Chinese authorities ordered the removal of a statue of Korean independence activist (or terrorist, depending on your point of view) Ahn Jung-geun 10 days after it was erected near Harbin Station. Harbin Station, of course, is where Ahn, also known by his Catholic name of Thomas, popped a cap into former Japanese Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi in 1909.
The 4.5-meter-tall statue of Ahn was unveiled on Jan. 16 in a square along Harbin’s central Zhongyang Avenue, some 200~300 meters away from the spot of the assassination. At the foot of the statue is Ahn’s hand-print (minus, of course, a digit), so that the statue could be recognized from long off. The monument was erected by an Ahn Jung-geun remembrance association and a Korean businessman identified by his family name of Lee.
As it would turn out, Lee had gotten permission from the Harbin city authorities to put up the statue in the square, which is in front of a department store in which Lee was investing heavily.
Beijing saw matters differently, however, and not long after the statue was unveiled, the central government ordered that it be covered up and then moved inside the department store. “Statues of foreigners are not permitted,” explained Beijing.
And in Taiwan, Chen Shui-bian has ordered the removal of statutes of Chiang Kai-shek from military bases.:
The graven image of the venerable Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek will no longer greet you as you report for mandatory military service. President Chen has decided that the statues of Chiang which grace all of Taiwan’s military 100+ bases will be brought down and stored at an undisclosed location. According to one KMT Party mouthpiece (i.e., The China Post), this is like the destructive dismantling of traditional cultural icons that took place in China during the Great Proletarian Revolution (1966-76). Just as monuments to Confucius were scrapped, so too will images of Chiang, our "Eternal Leader," be tossed on the fire.
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