The Ministry of Education (MOE) has caused a stir with its recent directive that elementary and junior high schools teach that the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) “have been a part of China since ancient times,” and consequently belong to the Republic of China (ROC).
Critics called it “brain-washing under the guise of education.”
Huang Chi-teng (黃子騰), head of the ministry’s Department of Elementary Education, said the directive was sent after an interministerial meeting convened by the National Security Council (NSC), in which it was decided that the ministry would give schools a paper for use as reference in teaching “the relations between the Diaoyutai Islands and Taiwan.”
The paper, which includes comments such as “Japan stole the Diaoyutai Islands,” places China and Taiwan on the same side opposing Japan, using the claim that “the Diaoyutai Islands have belonged to China in the past” to argue that sovereignty over the Diaoyutais belongs to the ROC.
Huang said the paper was prepared by the council and that he had not looked closely at the content. He said the council could legally require that the ministry participate in the process, as the decision was reached during an interministerial meeting.
The council wrote the paper in May. In June, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a seminar on “the proper use of data concerning our claims on the Diaoyutai Islands” and sent a record of the meeting to all concerned government agencies.
Yang Kuo-tung (楊國棟), director-general of the ministry’s Department of Treaty and Legal Affairs, said the meeting was held primarily to discuss how to promote awareness of the Diaoyutai issue among elementary and junior-high school students.
The issue concerns whether “our national territory is intact,” Yang said, adding that it was a matter that concerns the public and one that it must face.
The Ministry of Education issued a decree on July 18 directing all elementary and junior-high schools to incorporate the NSC paper and teach students that the Daioyutai Islands has, since ancient times, been a part of China. It also directed schools to hold events to promote awareness of the issue and report their progress to the council.
Commenting on the matter, National Teachers’ Union secretary-general Wu Chung-tai (吳忠泰) said that any government paper relating to course material or course scheduling should first be submitted to the course syllabus committee and educational organizations should be invited to take part in negotiations and discussions.
The NSC should not have handled the matter in a top-down manner, giving the information to the education ministry and telling it to incorporate it into the curriculum, Wu said.
He said that as sovereignty over the Diaoyutais remains a sensitive issue — both domestically and internationally — the timing of the government’s announcement of such a policy gives educational organizations reason to doubt the motives of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration.
There are varied views in the nation concerning the Diaoyutai issue, National Alliance of Parents Organization head Gordon Hsieh (謝國清) said, adding that education should not become a tool for government propaganda.
Chiang Huang-chih (姜皇池), a professor of international law at National Taiwan University’s College of Law, also expressed doubts about the decision, saying the NSC paper presents a great risk in terms of international law, because it places Taiwan’s claims under the scope of it being a part of China.
The council’s proposition would relegate both Taiwan and the Diaoyutai Islands to being parts of China, Chiang said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) accused the Ministry of Education of employing Martial Law-era tactics by putting education under political control, with the NSC bypassing normal educational channels to teach students its own pre-customized ideologies.
Taiwan Solidarity Union Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) accused the council of being the force behind a government though-control scheme and propaganda machine.
“Whether the Diaoyutais are the territory of Taiwan, China or Japan is a question for historians to solve. The security council cannot decide the final outcome on its own,” Huang said.
Huang urged the Ma administration to respect the independence of the education system and to stop interfering with the school curriculum.
DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the council had gotten their priorities wrong.
Instead of trying to expand the nation’s international relations, they were conducting “united front” (統戰) propaganda aimed at Taiwanese elementary and junior-high school children, Tsai said.
Additional reporting by Chris Wang and Hu Ching-hui
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
‘REALLY PROUD’: Nvidia would not be possible without Taiwan, Huang said, adding that TSMC would be increasing its capacity by 100 percent Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday praised and lightly cajoled his major Taiwanese suppliers to produce more to help power strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI), capping a visit to the country of his birth, where he has been mobbed by adoring fans at every step. Speaking at an impromptu press conference in the rain outside a Taipei restaurant, where he had hosted suppliers for a “trillion-dollar dinner,” named after the market capitalization of those firms attending, Huang said this would be another good year for business. “TSMC needs to work very hard this year because I need a lot
RSS