Dissatisfied with what they call the government's foot-dragging in recognizing Chinese diplomas, educators and lawmakers at a public hearing at the Legislative Yuan yesterday urged the authorities to stop politicizing a purely educational issue.
"The recognition of Chinese diplomas is in fact a simple educational matter, which relates only to the education and employment rights of individuals. The government has long politicized the subject, fearing that Taiwanese studying in China would be brainwashed by communism and would therefore threaten our national security after their return. But the main consequence of this concern is only to undermine the rights of those students who study there," said Kirby Yung (楊朝祥), a former education minister and now the convener of the Education and Cultural Division of the National Policy Foundation (國家政策研究基金會).
KMT lawmakers Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and Lee Shang-ren (李先仁) endorsed Yung's opinion. They said government officials need to simplify the issue and consider it a matter of students' rights.
The lawmakers dismissed concerns that these students would jeopardize the country's security after returning to Taiwan.
"Graduate student's should already be mature and well-developed. Besides, one can truly recognize the weaknesses of socialism through contact with and understanding of the society," they said.
The educators also condemned the authorities for what they said was a contradiction in policy.
"It is unreasonable for the government not to recognize Chinese diplomas when it is sponsoring visiting scholars from China to teach or do research in Taiwan's educational institutions," said Yang Kai-hwang (
"It is an inescapable trend as academic exchange between the two sides becomes more frequent. What's more, these contacts have proved to be instructive in elevating our academic levels. The government should relax its restrictions and enable competition to take place in order to improve the educational quality of Taiwan's universities," Yang said.
While official statistics don't exist, there are reportedly tens of thousands of Taiwanese students studying in China, in fields such as law, Chinese medicine, and engineering. An estimated 1,000 Taiwanese hold Chinese degrees that have not been recognized by Taiwan's government.
In 1997, former minister of education Wu Jin (吳京) triggered a fierce controversy when he drafted a regulation to recognize Chinese accreditation and recommended 73 Chinese universities for recognition in Taiwan. The plan was not carried out, as it was lambasted as going against the "Go slow, be patient" China policy advocated by then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝).
In response, Chang Kuo-pao (張國保), vice director of the department of higher education of the Ministry of Education, said education officials were fully aware of the call and were not totally opposed to the idea.
But the present difficulty, he said, is how to select the schools to be recognized because many of the 73 schools in Wu's proposal had changed, having undergone a radical program of mergers and other forms of integration.
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
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
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
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique