Anti-US Protests in Taiwan

Some of us might remember the recent incidents in Japan and South Korea where the U.S. military either raped or killed innocent civilians. But in Taiwan too?

In Japan, the incident took place in Okinawa in 1995, where U.S. servicemen gang-raped a 12-year old girl. The incident led to a public outcry for a reduction in U.S. troops, and a revision to the U.S.-Japan military pact that prevents American servicemen from being handed to local police.

While in Korea, a U.S. armored vehicle accidentally ran over two middle-school girls in Yangju, a suburban city, in June 2002. Apart from a public outcry, the incident also led to violent protests and unprovoked attacks on US soldiers.

In Taiwan, a similar incident happened almost three decades ago - in May 1975, when an American soldier based in Taiwan, U.S. Army sergeant Robert Reynolds, shot and killed a 30-year old Chinese man outside Reynolds headquarters.

Reynolds said the victim had been peering through the window at Reynold's disrobed wife, and that he feared the man was planning an attack.

But a court-martial acquitted Reynolds, sparking a wave of anti-American protests. Americans in the streets were harassed, the victim's widow went on a hunger strike, and an angry crowd occupied and set fire to the U.S. embassy.