The government will encourage local universities to seek and expand exchanges with their US counterparts to give the nation a voice in public policy debates in the US, Minister of Education Wu Ching-ji (吳清基) said yesterday.
Wu said the administration would support cooperation and exchanges with prestigious US schools through its five-year, NT$50 billion (US$1.6 billion) program to facilitate local universities’ transition into world-class educational institutions.
Aside from the funding, the minister said it was hoped that more funds would be allocated to establish educational foundations or research centers at renowned US schools where Taiwanese students could continue their education.
If Taiwanese students could graduate from highly reputable schools in the US, they would have a better chance of finding a good job and be better placed to speak for Taiwan there, Wu said.
Wu said Beijing had spent a great deal of money over the past decade to forge cooperative relationships with well-established US schools, including the Ivy League universities.
Through these ties, many Chinese students have gained enrollment in premier US schools, Wu said. In contrast, the number of Taiwanese students studying at those same universities is on the decline and these top schools are now less likely to offer scholarships to students from Taiwan, he said.
“If we don’t have footholds in the top schools, there will be only Chinese voices in public hearings in the US in the future,” he said.
Wu said that those studying in the US on the recommendation of the local schools subsidized by the government’s elite university development program are not obliged to return to Taiwan for work after graduation.
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:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching