Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday weighed in on controversy over the Ministry of Education’s high-school curriculum adjustments, saying the changes were “too minor” and “far from enough.”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential hopeful said in an interview with radio host Tang Hsiang-lung (唐湘龍) yesterday morning — who called the curriculum controversy “the most bloody, political and vicious machination” — that it is “wrong to call the adjustment process a ‘black box.’”
Defending the ministry against a court ruling that its conduct in planning and deciding the adjustment process was not transparent enough, Hung said that it was the composition of the curriculum adjustment committee, rather than the adjustments per se, that was admonished by the court.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
However, “consider this: If [the ministry] did make public the names of the members of the curriculum adjustment committee, given the prevailing political mood, no one would dare join the committee in the future,” she said.
“Even those who are rational and hard-working would not dare to do so, because they will be harshly criticized, humiliated or even harassed at their residence. How can the ministry make the list public?” she said.
Hung claimed that if the ministry had asked a group of academics who have a different political leaning, such as those who favor Taiwanese independence, to sit on the committee, “there definitely would have been no problem at all,” because KMT supporters would not harass those academics or make a scene “thanks to a different political culture.”
As for the curriculum adjustments, Hung said they were “way too minor” and “far from enough.”
“Almost nothing has been changed,” she added.
The curriculum guidelines have to be revised in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of China, Hung said, adding that the ministry had already been “compelled” to make concessions, such as allowing teachers to prepare their own additional teaching materials and promising that controversial parts would not be tested.
“History as a subject underwent a 180o change during the administrations of [former] presidents Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁),” she said. “Were the names of curriculum committee members made public then?”
“We are simply returning [the curriculum] back to the right track — a track that is in accordance with the ROC Constitution,” she added.
Tang said he was “deeply concerned,” as the “Sunflower movement generation” who have been taught these revisions, now have a “distorted, self-rationalized and relatively self-isolated view of history.”
“Yes,” Hung said repeatedly, expressing enthusiastic approval of Tang’s remarks.
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
STAYING ALERT: China this week deployed its largest maritime show of force to date in the region, prompting concern in Taipei and Tokyo, which Beijing has brushed off Deterring conflict over Taiwan is a priority, the White House said in its National Security Strategy published yesterday, which also called on Japan and South Korea to increase their defense spending to help protect the first island chain. Taiwan is strategically positioned between Northeast and Southeast Asia, and provides direct access to the second island chain, with one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea, the report said. Given the implications for the US economy, along with Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductors, “deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” it said. However, the strategy also reiterated
‘BALANCE OF POWER’: Hegseth said that the US did not want to ‘strangle’ China, but to ensure that none of Washington’s allies would be vulnerable to military aggression Washington has no intention of changing the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Saturday, adding that one of the US military’s main priorities is to deter China “through strength, not through confrontation.” Speaking at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, Hegseth outlined the US Department of Defense’s priorities under US President Donald Trump. “First, defending the US homeland and our hemisphere. Second, deterring China through strength, not confrontation. Third, increased burden sharing for us, allies and partners. And fourth, supercharging the US defense industrial base,” he said. US-China relations under
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
RSS