Minister of the Interior Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) yesterday denied allegations made earlier in the day by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member Yu Shu-hui (游淑慧) that he had illegally taught in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Yu, who is running for a Taipei City Council seat, wrote on Facebook that Yeh had broken the law by teaching at Zhejiang University’s Guanhua Law School in December 2011 and January 2012, attaching a screenshot of the university’s Web site describing Yeh as a lecturer.
Yeh held a noontime news conference at the Ministry of the Interior, saying while he did give lectures in China, he did not receive compensation, which is in compliance with the law.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
Yeh said he was a full-time National Taiwan University professor when he received an invitation from the law school’s then-vice president Zhu Xinli (朱新力) asking him to give lectures to Zhu’s “Government Regulations and Administrative Rule of Law” class.
Since he received no payment for the lectures and Zhu was the course instructor, nothing he did met the legal definition of part-time work, Yeh said.
“Everything was done strictly according to the law,” he said.
His only activities in China that resembled Yu’s allegations were the lectures in Zhejiang, though he has given talks on environmental regulations on several occasions, but all of those speaking engagements were short-term, Yeh said.
The university Web page describing him as a lecturer does not mean he was a part of the institution’s faculty and he has asked the university to take the page down to avoid further misunderstandings, Yeh said.
“As an academic, I believe in the advantages of global academic dialogue, including exchanges with China,” he said.
“While there are special circumstances across the [Taiwan] Strait, the nation has laws and regulations in place to govern [issues related to China], and I have followed them in all of my speaking engagements and short-term lectureships there,” he said.
When a reporter asked Yeh to respond to Yu’s comment that the government is guilty of double standards in stalling confirmation on National Taiwan University president-elect Kuan Chung-ming’s (管中閔) appointment while ignoring his alleged wrongdoings, Yeh said: “I am glad to have the opportunity to share with the public how international academic exchange is regulated. This is the first time I learned of this comparison and I am quite surprised. I want to clear this up as soon as possible.”
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) quoted the Taiwanese song One Small Umbrella (一支小雨傘) to describe his nation’s situation. Wong’s use of such a song shows Singapore’s familiarity with Taiwan’s culture and is a perfect reflection of exchanges between the two nations, Representative to Singapore Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said yesterday in a post on Facebook. Wong quoted the song, saying: “As the rain gets heavier, I will take care of you, and you,” in Mandarin, using it as a metaphor for Singaporeans coming together to face challenges. Other Singaporean politicians have also used Taiwanese songs
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
CLAMPING DOWN: At the preliminary stage on Jan. 1 next year, only core personnel of the military, the civil service and public schools would be subject to inspections Regular checks are to be conducted from next year to clamp down on military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers with Chinese citizenship or Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Article 9-1 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) stipulates that Taiwanese who obtain Chinese household registration or a Chinese passport would be deprived of their Taiwanese citizenship and lose their right to work in the military, public service or public schools, it said. To identify and prevent the illegal employment of holders of Chinese ID cards or
RSS