Students forced their way into the K-12 Education Administration building in Taipei yesterday, promising further action by the end of the week if controversial high-school curriculum guidelines are not withdrawn.
About 50 students gathered at the agency’s building — part of the Ministry of Education — at about 3pm, seeking to present their demands to agency officials.
Thirteen forced their way into building before employees pulled a metal gate in front of the entrance.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
A standoff followed, as students outside the building forced the gate up, but were unable to break through an interior police cordon.
The ministry lacked sincerity when responding to student requests that the guidelines be withdrawn and instead just repeated prior statements, Northern Taiwan Anti-Curriculum Changes Alliance convener Chu Chen (朱震) said.
Chu demanded that the ministry guarantee the safety of students inside the building and select an official to accept their petition.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Students yelled slogans such as: “Oppose brainwashing guidelines, open up black box procedures.” They also demanded that ministry officials “open up the iron gates and let our comrades go.”
Students inside the building made their way to the fifth-floor office of K-12 Administrator Director Wu Ching-shan (吳清山), looking for someone to receive their concerns after failing to find Wu.
Adjustments to high-school curriculum guidelines have generated controversy for what critics describe as a “China-centric” focus.
The protest yesterday came on a deadline students had imposed for the guidelines to be withdrawn.
The K-12 Education Administration is responsible for implementing the guidelines and represented a softer target than the ministry building, which has been barricaded with barbed wire and cast-iron doors in recent weeks.
The police force at the ministry took more than 10 minutes to reach the K-12 Education Administration building, which is several blocks from the ministry.
After police reinforcements arrived, a 10-minute standoff occurred before students let go of the gate and sat silently in front of the building, urging that students who made it inside be allowed to exit and that officials emerge to face their concerns.
Later, Han Chun-shu (韓春樹), deputy head of the agency’s secondary and vocational education division, led out the 13 students inside the building and issued a response to the protesters’ concerns, saying that the ministry would draft additional curriculum materials on the controversial portions of the guidelines by next month, allowing teachers to supplement textbooks with class discussion.
The students opted to withdraw, but repeated their dissatisfaction with the what they described as the “skipping needle” of the ministry’s responses.
They would return with more intense measures, they said, with their next moves to be posted online within a week.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking
RSS