Hundreds of medical students demonstrated outside the legislature yesterday morning as lawmakers discussed proposed amendments to the Physician’s Act (醫師法) that would require a higher threshold for Taiwanese doctors who study abroad to obtain their license.
Controversy over whether doctors with diplomas from medical schools abroad should have to meet extra requirements to obtain medical licenses in Taiwan have arisen as more students chose to attend medical schools in Eastern Europe — mainly Poland — because it is cheaper to study there.
The demonstrators questioned the quality of medical education in Poland, saying that Polish medical schools do not require practicums as Taiwanese schools do.
Some said that Taiwanese medical students in Poland can get a medical degree just by paying money.
The demonstrators urged lawmakers to adopt the amendments as soon as possible.
“Medical students with degrees earned from abroad should take a qualification exam, attend a one-year practicum program and then pass the national exam in order to become a doctor in Taiwan,” said Chang Heng-hao (張恆豪), chairman of the Alliance of Taiwanese Medical Students. “The health of people in the country would be better protected if the amendments were adopted.”
Over on the other side of the legislature about a dozen parents of students studying abroad protested against the proposed amendments.
“Why do students have to take an extra qualification exam if the government already recognizes diplomas from the country they studied in? This is not fair and doesn’t make any sense,” said Hsu Hung-hsiang (徐鴻祥), the father of a student now studying in Poland.
“Does that mean that everyone who receives a degree from another country should have to pass an extra exam before the degree is recognized? It just doesn’t make sense,” he said.
Lawmakers found themselves just as divided over the issue as the rival groups of protesters.
Worried about the impact of the proposals and unable to reach a consensus, the lawmakers decided to continue their discussion of the proposed amendments at further meetings.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift