For the first time in its history, Taiwan's army academy has accepted students from an African country as part of its efforts to promote international exchanges, defense officials said yesterday.
The two students -- one man and one woman -- are from Malawi, one of Taiwan's diplomatic allies in Africa.
The military declined to provide the students' names.
The army academy has a long tradition of accepting students from foreign countries which have diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
In the past, the army academy admitted only foreign students from diplomatic allies in Latin America, such as Honduras, Panama, Guatemala and Paraguay.
Over the past 15 years, each of these Latin American countries has sent one student to study at the army academy in Taiwan.
This summer, a student from Guatemala graduated from the army academy after studying there for four years.
According to a defense official, the Guatemalan student had asked for formal permission to stay in Taiwan and serve in the military here.
The Ministry of National Defense actually granted the request but the student did not come back to Taiwan after a trip to his mother country.
"The example shows that our military education is good in its own right, the official said.
"It also means that Taiwan's military has enough incentives for a foreigner to consider joining," he said.
The army academy is not the only military institute to accept foreign students. Long before the academy did so, the political warfare college -- also known as Fu Hsing Kang college (政治作戰學校) -- had admitted students from African countries; even those which did not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
Some of these African students were from countries which would fall into the category of "rogue states" by current standards, sources said.
The political warfare college has also accepted foreign students from the Middle East and from Latin America. These students were often from the ruling classes of their countries.
In fact, one officer who recalled his days at the Fu Hsing Kang College said that while he was a student, there was even a princess from a Latin American country studying at the college.
The college still runs that special class for foreign students called "Class for Friends from Afar." It's a name which evokes association with a famous saying by Confucius, "It is a great joy to see a friend from afar."
"Although the class for foreign students is now an open secret, no military official is willing to discuss it with people from outside," the officer said.
"So for the civilians, the class is still shrouded in mystery," he said.
The National Defense University -- the top military institute in the country -- also accepts military officials from foreign countries who are looking for advanced studies.
Among the foreign students currently at univeristy is one military official from Malawi, who is the first representative from his country to study at the university.
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