Move to rename 300 roads linked to Chiang Kai-shek sparks backlash in Taiwan

Local officials slam bid to change names of Zhongzheng Roads as a waste of money

- Yip Wai Yee

TAIPEI - With more than 300 roads across the island carrying this name, Zhongzheng Road is Taiwan's most common - and contentious - street name.

And they may all disappear, if the government's proposal to rename every Zhongzheng Road goes to plan.

When Taiwan's Ministry of the Interior resurfaced the initiative on June 2, it sparked immediate backlash from local officials, who condemned it as a waste of money.

In New Taipei city alone, officials estimate that it could cost upwards of NT$60 million (S$2.6 million) to rename all 22 Zhongzheng Roads across the city's 18 administrative districts, to replace not just the major street signs but also individual home address plaques.

The ministry, however, has defended the move as a human rights issue and one that must be taken seriously.

"The government cannot pretend to look at transitional justice only when there is money to do so, as that attitude does not reflect Taiwan's democracy and rule of law," Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang told reporters.

The controversy stems from the complicated legacy of Taiwan's longest-serving head of state, Chiang Kai-shek, who had used Zhongzheng as his adopted name.

As the leader of the then ruling Kuomintang (KMT) in China, Chiang fought a civil war with the Communist Party of China after World War II and lost. He fled with his government to Taiwan in 1949, where he ruled as president until his death in 1975.

His authoritarian rule under martial law was controversial, and while democratic reforms were undertaken by his son Chiang Ching-kuo, the current ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has been taking measures under its transitional justice policy to right historical injustices of the authoritarian era.

Changing the name of the Zhongzheng Roads is one of these moves.