The Ministry of Education and the Examination Yuan yesterday advocated revising Taiwanese history to state that Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) is not the nation's founding father, triggering protests from that opposition camp and accusations that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is actively promoting independence.
A close aide to the president rebutted the "inappropriate" statements yesterday, and said they do not represent President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) views and are not the government's policy.
Yesterday was the commemoration day of the national father's birth. The presidential office accordingly held memorial assembly which Chen, Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and representatives from five branches of the central government attended.
Examination Yuan President Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文) and Examination Yuan member Lin Yu-ti's (林玉體) remarks regarding Sun's status triggered complaints from the opposition parties and depicted DPP beginning a large scale cultural revolution.
Many members of the DPP are concerned that with only one month before the legislative election, controversial issues regarding the nation's status and history will have adverse effects on the DPP's electoral prospects.
Chen's aide said yesterday that "Lin cannot represent the government, and definitely cannot represent the DPP."
"The opposition camp painstakingly presented these inappropriate statements by other people as Chen's words. Their methods are merely focussed on the election," the presidential aide, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
The aide also pointed out that Chen was unimpressed with members of the Ministry of Education and the Examination Yuan causing controversies with the issues of Taiwanese history.
The revision of history text books is not a matter of urgency given the legislative elections and the topic remains extremely controversial among the public.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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