The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus said yesterday that it hoped to push through a number of proposed amendments by the end of the current legislative session to allow Taiwanese schools to recruit Chinese students.
Caucus secretary-general Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) told a press conference that the caucus backed Minister of Education Wu Ching-chi’s (吳清基) call on Tuesday to pass the bills as soon as possible.
Lu said recruiting students from China would have a positive impact because they could learn about “the most authentic Chinese culture” and democracy in Taiwan.
Wu said the ministry had to gear up to push through the bills by the end of this legislative session or it would be difficult to begin enrolling Chinese students next year.
The ministry has held 17 public hearings to gauge opinion on the issue.
Wu said most participants acknowledged the positive side of allowing Chinese students into Taiwan and recognizing Chinese credentials, but the ministry would continue to consult on diploma issue before the bills are passed.
The ministry has made recruitment of students from China and recognition of Chinese credentials two of its key objectives since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office last year.
The Democratic Progressive Party, however, remains opposed to the plan.
During the ministry’s final hearing in Taipei yesterday, Vice Minister of Education Lin Tsung-ming (林聰明) said the number of Chinese students allowed to study in this country would initially be capped at 2,000 a year.
The ministry would recognize credentials from 41 Chinese universities but not recognize medical diplomas, Lin said.
It would also negotiate with Beijing to ensure the number of Taiwanese students pursuing advanced studies in China would be equal to the number of Chinese in this country.
Liu Lin-wei (柳林瑋), a representative of the Federation of Medical Students in Taiwan, expressed concern that the ministry might relax its ban on Chinese medical credentials in the future.
However, Chen Cheng-teng (陳正騰), vice chairman of the Taiwan Students Union — an organization of Taiwanese students studying in China — criticized the ministry for denying Taiwanese medical students in China the right to participate in national certification examinations in Taiwan.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the