The government has uncovered a Chinese project aimed at promoting unification in Taiwan’s elementary and high schools to promote unification, a national security official said on condition of anonymity.
A total of 259 teachers and students from 18 schools in China’s Jiangsu Province last week visited 18 elementary, junior and senior-high schools in Taiwan as part of an exchange program, the source said, adding that some of the visitors stayed in local homes.
After Burkina Faso severed ties with Taiwan on Thursday, the government tightened the review process for visiting Chinese officials and people connected to them, the source said.
Photo: Screen grab from the Taiwan International Youth Exchange Association Web site
However, regular exchange activities are still reviewed by other ministries and do not require a review by the Ministry of the Interior, they added.
The visiting teachers and students only needed approval from the principals of the local schools, and some of their assistance, to conduct exchanges, the source added.
In a bid to hold a large-scale exchange event in Taiwan, the Chinese teachers and students were split into 18 groups and applied separately to the Ministry of Education for permission to conduct exchanges, the source said.
Several Chinese officials had also been approved for visits, as they had applied separately with schedules seemingly unrelated to the exchange events, they added.
An annual forum on educational development in Taiwan and Jiangsu launched by the province in 2015 has since built a network involving 55 Taiwanese schools.
At last year’s forum in Jiangsu, an official from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said that China hoped to help “students on both sides of the Taiwan Strait develop the correct view on the nation and history,” adding that they would hold exchange events outside of the province.
China’s Xinhua news agency has reported that the forum aims to build a framework for regular exchanges between 1,000 students from 100 schools in Taiwan and China by next year.
It would begin with individual schools signing bilateral agreements and would eventually develop into a long-term regional collaboration based on clear frameworks and regulations, the report said.
The forum held similar events in May last year after the education ministry approved visits by 227 teachers and students from 14 Chinese schools local schools to promote exchanges, the source said.
Officials last year found that 18 Taiwanese schools had signed agreements to conduct exchanges with Chinese schools, but only two — Taoyuan’s Hsing-fu Junior High School and Da You Junior High School — had informed the education ministry, the source said.
The Taoyuan City Government was alarmed by the scope of this year’s event and notified the central government, which then found that the education ministry had approved the visits, the source added.
The government has drawn up a series of measures to address the issue, including requiring regulatory authorities to inspect the local schools involved, the source said.
According to Taiwan International Youth Exchange Association, the schools involved in this year’s events are in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Nantou counties.
They are Taipei Wego Private High School, Taipei Municipal Neihu High School, New Taipei Municipal Banqiao Junior High School, Sanxia Junior High School, Kuang Jen Catholic High School, New Taipei Municipal San Min High School, Banquet Senior High School, Taoyuan Municipal Guang Ming Junior High School, Linsen Elementary School, Toujhou Elementary School, Hsing-fu Junior High School, Da You Junior High School, Taoyuan Junior High School, Taoyuan Municipal New Li Senior High School, Chubei Elementary School, Emei Bilingual Junior High School and Kuosing Elementary School.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
AFTERMATH: The Taipei City Government said it received 39 minor incident reports including gas leaks, water leaks and outages, and a damaged traffic signal A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s northeastern coast late on Saturday, producing only two major aftershocks as of yesterday noon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The limited aftershocks contrast with last year’s major earthquake in Hualien County, as Saturday’s earthquake occurred at a greater depth in a subduction zone. Saturday’s earthquake struck at 11:05pm, with its hypocenter about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km. Shaking was felt in 17 administrative regions north of Tainan and in eastern Taiwan, reaching intensity level 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier seismic scale, the CWA said. In Hualien, the
RSS