students and not enough adults." The NSA's inaugural in-person meeting was held on 17 March 2007 in Taichung. It was reportedly attended by ten people. A day after the meeting, on 18 March, the NSA issued a public apology, saying, "[We] condemn violence and illegality; Hitler is not the foundation of our ideology." Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded by saying that the NSA had already damaged Taiwan's reputation abroad. Membership The NSA had 20 dues-paying members in March 2007. Its website, which functioned primarily as an online forum, had more than 760 registered accounts prior to its exposure in major media; the NSA claimed that the number rose to over 1,400 afterwards. Taiwanese nationalist politician Yang Chih-yuan registered an account on the forum in late 2006, when he was a middle school student. Practices NSA members greet each other with the Nazi salute and repeat the slogans "One People, One Country, One Leader" (a reference to the Nazi slogan "") and "Long live Hitler" during meetings. Criticisms Various prominent Jewish organizations and individuals around the world have condemned the NSA's activities and practices. The Simon Wiesenthal Center condemned the NSA on 13 March 2007 for championing Hitler and blaming democracy for Taiwan's "social unrest". Raphael Gamzou, Israel's representative in Taiwan at the time, described the group as "ignorant and stupid". Chao responded to accusations of racism and antisemitism by asserting that the NSA merely aimed to "develop Taiwan's strength, foster national unity, and restore traditional Chinese values like Confucianism". Chao stated that the group was rooted in the ideas of Sun Yat-sen, not Adolf Hitler. The German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle pushed back against Chao's assertions of moderateness, saying: "On the surface, [the NSA] only said that Taiwan should be strong. On the surface, it does not engage in racism or antisemitism. But in fact, these ideas exist [within the group]. It is very dangerous to choose this political path." Yue similarly claimed that the NSA had "nothing to do with Nazism" and its members wanted to "study Hitler's good points, not his massacres". However, the Taipei Times noted that Yue had made several posts on the NSA's website which were reminiscent of Nazi rhetoric. For example, Yue advocated harsher immigration restrictions, the criminalization of interracial marriage, and the killing of infants born to migrant workers. Emile Sheng, a municipal official in Taipei, commented on the NSA's backtracking, saying: