Hsiuping Institute of Technology in Taichung County came under fire yesterday after taking down the national flag and a portrait of Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) in an apparent gesture to welcome guests from China.
Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) yesterday denounced the school as setting a bad example for students and the general public.
"Any international academic exchange with China should be based on the premise of mutual respect. As an educational institute, the school succumbed to pressure from China and humiliated our national pride. It set a bad example for the school's students, and seriously damaged Taiwan's reputation," Tu said yesterday.
Tu told the ministry's monthly meeting yesterday afternoon that the ministry's Technology and Vocational Education Department is investigating the case, and the school may face some form of punishment in the future.
According to reports in local Chinese-language media, the Hsiuping Institute of Technology invited an academic exchange group from Shandong University of Technology in China to attend the school's graduation ceremony on June 12. The school allegedly took down the national flag and a portrait of Sun moments before the eight guests from China joined the proceedings.
Some students and their parents have described the removal of the national symbols as a gesture to please the Chinese visitors.
Premier Frank Hsieh (
Hsieh also described the removal as a bad example to be set by an educational institution and called on the education ministry to rectify the matter.
The Hsiuping Institute of Technology yesterday denied that the flag and portrait had been removed as a "goodwill" gesture to the visitors.
"We did not take down the national flag and portrait of Dr. Sun Yat-sen to welcome the representatives from China. We took them down to better display the background setting that had been designed specially for the graduation ceremony," school president Lin Bao-zong (
According to Lin, the graduation ceremony was opened with the singing of the national anthem, followed by bowing to the national flag and a portrait of Sun. The school then removed the flag and portrait in order to change the background setting.
"Taking down the flag and portrait had nothing to do with pleasing the academic exchange group from China, it was done so as not to obscure the ceremony's background setting. We will never damage the reputation of our country, so there must be a misunderstanding," he said.
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
GIVE AND TAKE: Blood demand continues to rise each year, while fewer young donors are available due to the nation’s falling birthrate, a doctor said Blood donors can redeem points earned from donations to obtain limited edition Formosan black bear travel mugs, the Kaohsiung Blood Center said yesterday, as it announced a goal of stocking 20,000 units of blood prior to the Lunar New Year. The last month of the lunar year is National Blood Donation Month, when local centers seek to stockpile blood for use during the Lunar New Year holiday. The blood demand in southern Taiwan — including Tainan and Kaohsiung, as well as Chiayi, Pingtung, Penghu and Taitung counties — is about 2,000 units per day, the center said. The donation campaign aims to boost
ENHANCING EFFICIENCY: The apron can accommodate 16 airplanes overnight at Taoyuan airport while work on the third runway continues, the transport minister said A new temporary overnight parking apron at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to start operating on Friday next week to boost operational efficiency while the third runway is being constructed, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The apron — one of the crucial projects in the construction of the third runway — can accommodate 16 aircraft overnight at the nation’s largest international airport, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told reporters while inspecting the new facility yesterday morning. Aside from providing the airport operator with greater flexibility in aircraft parking during the third runway construction,
American climber Alex Honnold is to attempt a free climb of Taipei 101 today at 9am, with traffic closures around the skyscraper. To accommodate the climb attempt and filming, the Taipei Department of Transportation said traffic controls would be enforced around the Taipei 101 area. If weather conditions delay the climb, the restrictions would be pushed back to tomorrow. Traffic controls would be in place today from 7am to 11am around the Taipei 101 area, the department said. Songzhi Road would be fully closed in both directions between Songlian Road and Xinyi Road Sec 5, it said, adding that bidirectional traffic controls would
RSS