Students who allegedly broke into the Ministry of Education (MOE) compound late on Thursday night — and possibly three journalists who followed the students — are to be charged with several offenses, Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) said yesterday, calling the students a “front” for external political forces.
Wu said that the ministry had communicated with students on numerous occasions, both official and unofficial, and had shown restraint in not prosecuting previous incidents of trespassing on ministry property.
“Our tolerance has been rewarded with continued irrational behavior, which we feel has been disorderly and seriously breaches the bounds of what is acceptable, creating the worst possible example,” Wu said, adding that he wished to express his “regret” and “condemnation” of the students’ “brashly illegal behavior.”
Photo: Taipei Times
The ministry said that 33 people had been arrested, including 24 students, three reporters and six other individuals. Eleven minors were among those arrested.
The students used ladders to scale barbed-wire barricades on the perimeter of the ministry compound, with a number of students later barricading themselves inside Wu’s office.
MOE Secretary-General Wang Chun-chuan (王俊傑) said that the students would be prosecuted for two charges according to the Criminal Code: trespassing on the dwelling or structure of another and damaging public property.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Wu condemned what he called the “unethical behavior” of outside political forces behind the student movement.
“At many venues, we found that some political parties and social organizations have interposed themselves in activities relating to the curriculum guidelines,” Wu said. “They hide themselves behind students who are pushed to the front lines.”
Wu also ruled out any temporary suspension of the controversial curriculum guidelines, stating that the administrative procedures for them to go into effect next month have already been completed and he could not reverse them.
He said the ministry maintains that schools are to be allowed to use textbooks based on either the old or new versions of guidelines, with teachers using “supplementary materials” to lead discussion on both sides of the controversial portions.
Regarding communication with students, Wu said that students protesting earlier this week had failed to clearly state how they wished to communicate with ministry officials.
While schedule conflicts prevented him from attending Thursday’s ministry-sponsored forums on the guidelines, the officials who did attend were fully capable of representing the ministry’s position, he said.
Forums were delayed for more than a month after the first event ended with Wu being confronted by students, who attempted to prevent him from leaving.
Wu said he remained willing to meet with student representatives, with the time, place and manner of such a meeting all negotiable.
He confirmed that Wu Ching-shan (吳清山) had tendered his resignation as director of the K-12 Education Administration, which is responsible for implementing the guidelines, but said that he had yet to approve the request.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
RSS