Several university presidents yesterday urged the Ministry of Education to allow Chinese students who will soon be entering the nation’s universities to join the National Health Insurance program, just as other international students do.
Asked to comment on the sidelines of the Third Cross-Strait University Presidents’ Forum in Taipei, Shih Hsin University president Lai Ting-ming (賴鼎銘) said problems could arise as Chinese students begin to enroll in Taiwanese universities next year because they cannot be insured under the program at present.
National Chengchi University president Wu Si-hua (吳思華), who hosted the forum, said Chinese students should be able to enjoy the same rights as international students.
Under the National Insurance Act (全民健康保險法), only Republic of China nationals who have had household registration in Taiwan for more than four months are allowed to participate in the mandatory social insurance system.
Foreigners who have had residency in Taiwan for more than four months are also allowed to be insured under the program. However, students from China do not fit into either category.
The director of the ministry’s -Department of Higher Education, Ho Cho-fei (何卓飛), dismissed the possibility, saying Chinese students should be covered under a student insurance plan.
They can purchase other private insurance if necessary, Ho said.
Meanwhile, National Cheng Kung University president Michael Lai (賴明詔) said he was concerned about the ability of universities to attract Chinese students, given the restrictions the ministry sought to impose on them.
Following the relaxation of rules in August, universities are now allowed to recruit students from China, but are barred from providing -scholarship funding or part-time jobs to Chinese.
Michael Lai said Cheng Kung University had sought to provide funding for potential students from China through fundraising.
In related developments, Ho told the two-day forum that education officials across the Taiwan Strait should establish a mechanism allowing them to conduct regular dialogue and thereby ensure that papers signed by ministries or universities on both sides are legally binding.
The ministry has been considering a cross-strait educational memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish a systematic platform for dialogue.
Minister of Education Wu Ching-ji (吳清基) said last month that the ministry hoped to ink the MOU by the end of the year.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS