The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) are manipulating students and are the source of discontent in schools nationwide in ongoing controversy surrounding the Ministry of Education’s planned adjustments to high-school curriculum guidelines, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Shu-hui (陳淑慧) said.
Chen was referring to students in more than 200 senior-high schools nationwide who have petitioned against the ministry’s decision to make changes that students said reflect a “China-centric” view.
The students also said the planned changes are illegal, referring to a Feb. 12 High Administrative Court ruling that the ministry must make its information more transparent and complete for public scrutiny.
Photo: Chen Yen-ting, Taipei Times
Chen on Friday said the opposition parties and pro-Taiwanese independence groups are manipulating and misleading the students because students lack sufficient information about the current affairs of the educational system.
“Complaints on materials listing the Himalayas as the nation’s highest peak are false and we are offering an award of NT$5,000 to anyone who can find any mention [in the adjusted curricula] that the Himalayas are the Republic of China’s highest peak,” she added.
Chen also defended the ministry in its appeal against the Taipei High Administrative Court.
While the court ruled that the ministry should make public the members of the Committee of Curriculum Review, the ministry has released other information, such as meeting records, and has not conducted any so-called “black box” meetings, Chen said.
KMT Legislator Yang Li-huan (楊麗環) suggested that the ministry abandon the proposed changes, adding that it should negotiate with students about the content of the curriculum guidelines.
The process of learning is supposed to go both ways, after all, she said, with students learning from teachers and the teachers benefiting from students’ questions.
The approaching summer vacations might cause concerned parents to take to the streets in protest, and the nation could ill afford any accidents, Yang said, adding that as the ministry has taken a step back and not insisted on the exclusive use of new textbooks, the issue is not as pressing as it might appear.
“We should all sit down and talk about the matter,” Yang said.
DPP Legislator Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) rejected the accusations of misleading students.
The KMT government and Chen are attempting to escalate the issue to a confrontation of pro-localization and pro-unification camps, Cheng said.
The issue is a question of the confrontation between truth and falsity, and the confrontation of education and politics, she said.
However, without full disclosure, the case should be considered as lacking transparency, Cheng said, adding that the ministry was afraid of making the list of members public because whether the ministry “cheated” would be easy to discern once the list is disclosed.
Lack of transparency is the very definition of a “black-box” operation and infringes on procedural justice, Cheng said, adding that the ministry is withholding information to keep the public in the dark and to buy time until the changes go into effect in August, creating a de facto victory.
MISINFORMATION: The generated content tends to adopt China’s official stance, such as ‘Taiwan is currently governed by the Chinese central government,’ the NSB said Five China-developed artificial intelligence (AI) language models exhibit cybersecurity risks and content biases, an inspection conducted by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The five AI tools are: DeepSeek, Doubao (豆包), Yiyan (文心一言), Tongyi (通義千問) and Yuanbao (騰訊元寶), the bureau said, advising people to remain vigilant to protect personal data privacy and corporate business secrets. The NSB said it, in accordance with the National Intelligence Services Act (國家情報工作法), has reviewed international cybersecurity reports and intelligence, and coordinated with the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau and the National Police Agency’s Criminal Investigation Bureau to conduct an inspection of China-made AI language
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
CHECKING BOUNDARIES: China wants to disrupt solidarity among democracies and test their red lines, but it is instead pushing nations to become more united, an expert said The US Department of State on Friday expressed deep concern over a Chinese public security agency’s investigation into Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) for “secession.” “China’s actions threaten free speech and erode norms that have underpinned the cross-strait ‘status quo’ for decades,” a US Department of State spokesperson said. The Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau late last month listed Shen as “wanted” and launched an investigation into alleged “secession-related” criminal activities, including his founding of the Kuma Academy, a civil defense organization that prepares people for an invasion by China. The spokesperson said that the US was “deeply concerned” about the bureau investigating Shen
‘TROUBLEMAKER’: Most countries believe that it is China — rather than Taiwan — that is undermining regional peace and stability with its coercive tactics, the president said China should restrain itself and refrain from being a troublemaker that sabotages peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. Lai made the remarks after China Coast Guard vessels sailed into disputed waters off the Senkaku Islands — known as the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in Taiwan — following a remark Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made regarding Taiwan. Takaichi during a parliamentary session on Nov. 7 said that a “Taiwan contingency” involving a Chinese naval blockade could qualify as a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, and trigger Tokyo’s deployment of its military for defense. Asked about the escalating tensions
RSS