Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Katharine Chang (張小月) yesterday urged Beijing to refrain from setting any preconditions for cross-strait cultural and academic exchanges after China’s finance and education ministries implemented a new rule requiring Taiwanese wanting to apply for Chinese scholarships to acknowledge the “one China” principle.
“We believe cultural and academic exchanges across the Taiwan Strait, such as Taiwanese students pursuing their studies in China, should be carried out on the basis of equality and dignity, and without any prerequisites,” Chang said on the sidelines of an international seminar on China’s power structure and policies.
The two-day seminar, which opened yesterday at Taipei’s Far Eastern Plaza Hotel, was organized by the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies at the behest of the MAC.
Photo: CNA
The establishment of preconditions are particularly unbefitting for Taiwanese, who treasure freedom, democracy and free thinking, Chang said.
“This is not the kind of situation we want to see,” she said.
Chang was responding to reporters’ requests for comment on the “Regulations Governing Scholarship for Taiwanese Students” promulgated by the Chinese Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Education on Oct. 13.
The regulations were drawn up to “bolster the central government’s Taiwan policy, push forward peaceful unification of the motherland and encourage more Taiwanese students to study in the mainland’s universities and research institutes so as to increase their identification with the motherland,” a Chinese government statement said.
Under Article 3 of the regulations, only Taiwanese who identify with the “one China” principle and unification can apply for a state scholarship.
According to Article 15, recipients of the scholarship could lose their money if they “say or do anything that opposes the ‘one China’ principle,” break the law or participate in illegal groups and organizations.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) spoke of people-centered policies several times in his report to the Chinese Communist Party’s 19th National Congress last month, Chang said, echoing President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) determination to base her policymaking on mainstream public opinion.
“The essence is to put the people in our minds as move toward our common values,” Chang said, expressing the hope that both sides of the Strait would remove all political prerequisites and resume dialogue.
The Ministry of Education on Tuesday said that students awarded scholarships in China should evaluate their situation and be aware of the political risks.
Academic exchanges should not suffer from political meddling and the government does not have a policy of encouraging Taiwanese to study in China, Department of International and Cross-strait Education Affairs Director Bi Tzu-an (畢祖安) said.
“Scholarships should be apolitical,” he said.
There are about 11,000 Taiwanese studying in China, he said.
Chinese studying in Taiwan are not troubled by political concerns and the government encourages them by providing a friendly environment, he said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft