The “Blacklist” and Transitional Justice

On December 1, 2025, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Institute of Diplomacy and International Affairs invited Yeh Hung-ling, a research scholar in the Department of Sociology at National Taiwan University and formerly vice-chair of the Transitional Justice Commission, to speak on the subject of the blacklist and transitional justice. She carefully reviewed the formation and impact of the blacklist system from various angles, including its operation, the extension of surveillance and controls overseas, the local implementation of transitional justice, and the international perspective.

The so-called blacklist was formally known as the Class A and Class B Reference List. It was created in 1949 to control persons traveling to Taiwan. Following the rise of the Taiwan independence movement in the 1960s, it evolved into a tool for intelligence agencies to restrict travel to Taiwan by overseas dissidents. Persons on the list who applied to come to Taiwan could be denied entry by such means as refusal to extend their passports or issue them reentry visas. If allowed in, their movements were often surveilled and they were told to “be discreet in words and deeds.”

The blacklist system not only violated freedom of movement and freedom of speech, it also affected academic and career trajectories. The system of “special investigations into overseas scholars” operated jointly by the intelligence agencies and the Ministry of Education required returning overseas students to undergo an investigation before taking a job, which often resulted in “extremists” being denied jobs at top universities and caused many academics to lose employment opportunities, derailing their careers. While ostensibly administrative in nature, the operations of the system were guided by political and ideological factors.

Yeh Hung-ling noted that the system was not monolithic. Files reveal that some civil servants or military judges tried to remain professional. But others enthusiastically embraced their political missions, making the system more rigid. “Systems are formed by people,” she explained, and only by understanding how authoritarianism operated and the situations and limits of each role within that system can one grasp its complexity.

Yeh also spoke about the blacklist within the overall context of transitional justice. She noted that early on, transitional justice in Taiwan focused on compensating victims of repression, but with the passage of the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (first enacted in 2017) it gradually evolved into self-reflection and acceptance of accountability and responsibility by government. “The better one understands dictatorship, the better the democracy one can build.” She argued that to address the challenges of the future it is essential to continue to strengthen the rule of law, declassify files, promote education, upgrade international exchanges to absorb the experience of other countries, and ensure adherence to democratic values by government and citizens. 

The Green Island Human Rights Monument. Like this memorial, the declassification of “blacklist“ files serves as a profound reflection on history—a symbol of transitional justice and the hope that such tragedies may never occur again. (photo by Jimmy Lin)

Yeh concluded her remarks by saying that “the purpose of transitional justice is to clarify tomorrow’s memories.”

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Dr. Yeh Hung-ling delivered a thought-provoking lecture on the blacklist and transitional justice at the Institute of Diplomacy and International Affairs.