The minister of education yesterday agreed to establish a "special education area" in Kinmen and Matsu to enable children of Tai-wanese businessmen based in the Chinese port city of Xiamen to attend school on Taiwan's islands.
It will also enable the businessmen themselves to study part-time in Kinmen for Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) degrees.
Minister Huang Jung-tsun (黃榮村) announced the move during an inspection tour of Kinmen. The Kinmen County Government has for the past year been pushing the central government to authorize a scheme aimed at attracting the children of China-based businessmen.
Kinmen County Commissioner Lee Chu-feng (
Commissioner Lee briefed Huang and reporters yesterday on the county government's plan, which includes the granting of scholarships and reduced tuition fees.
According to Lee, between 50,000 and 60,000 children of Taiwanese businessmen live in Xiamen and study in Chinese schools. Kinmen and Xiamen are just over 2km apart at their closest points.
Kinmen has faced a dramatic population decline since the early 1970s. In 1971, a total of 1,950 children were born on the island. Young people have tended to leave the island for higher education in Taiwan proper, where most of them remain to establish their careers, Lee said.
"Only around 500 infants are born in Kinmen each year now."
Kinmen has 19 elementary, seven junior-high and two senior-high schools, but the population decline has released educational resources in Kinmen. "We still have space for an additional 5,000 to 7,000 students each year" Lee said.
Lee said that the county government hoped to receive its first intake of Xiamen-based Taiwanese children this coming September, but Huang said that the timing would have to be discussed with other government agencies.
The plan envisages that the children will originally be housed in dormitories which the county government plans to build, joining their parents in Xiamen only during holidays.
The head of the Xiamen Tai-wanese Businessmen's Association, Huang Tieh-jung (
But, Huang added, the scheme should be accompanied by the establishment of regular, scheduled crossings between Xiamen and Kinmen, to allow parents and students to travel between the two sides. With the Chinese government continuing to refuse a resumption of dialogue with Tai-wan, however, there is little prospect of such services being established in the near future.
Minister Huang also gave his support yesterday to the Kinmen County Government's plans to cooperate with Xiamen University to launch an EMBA curriculum that would enable Taiwanese businessmen who live in Fujian province (
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard