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AFP
TAIPEI
PROTESTERS threw egg shells filled with red paint onto a statue of former leader Chiang Kai-shek at one of Taiwan's best-known landmarks on Friday, as the island grapples with its authoritarian past.
The imposing Chiang Kai-shek memorial hall in the capital Taipei is a popular tourist attraction and the bronze 6.3-metre-tall (20-feet) seated statue is its centrepiece.
Police said two people were detained after the sculpture was left smeared with red paint and egg shells strewn around its base.
Chiang is seen by many as symbolic of a brutal military regime which purged thousands of opponents until his death in 1975 and it is not the first time his statues have been targeted.
For many youths on the island, Chiang is also synonymous with the authoritarianism that wary Taiwanese now equate with mainland China, which still views the self-ruling island as part of its territory.
