The government’s move to describe the 50-year period when Taiwan was under Japan’s administration as “Japanese occupation” (日據) rather than “Japanese rule” (日治) has been criticized by a group of historians over what they said was the Executive Yuan’s arbitrary policy.
“Taiwan was ceded to Japan in perpetuity [by the Qing Dynasty] in accordance with the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, meaning that the latter had the legitimate right of sovereignty over the former and its rule did not constitute a wartime military occupation,” said Chen Yi-shen (陳儀深), an associate researcher at the Institute of Modern History at Academia Sinica.
Chen said that since President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration insisted on handling the issue in such an arbitrary manner and “was clearly unable to understand human languages,” the government “can do as it pleases with its own internal correspondence,” but added that he would stick to the term of using “the Japanese rule period” when teaching that period of history.
Meanwhile, a number of pro-localization groups, including the Southern Taiwan Society, the Northern Taiwan Society, the Central Taiwan Society, the Taiwan Hakka Society and the Union of Education in Taiwan, also issued a joint statement on Monday lambasting the new regulation.
The statement accused Ma of attempting to “de-Taiwanize” the public and to incorporate Taiwan’s history as part of China’s history by blurring the lines between the two.
It also said that the regulation not only ran counter to historical facts and Taiwan’s mainstream public opinion on that part of history, but also risked “challenging” Taiwanese people’s deep-seated emotions regarding the matter.
Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Hsu Wen-tang (許文堂) said the new regulation could be the Ma administration’s attempt to state its position on China’s “one China” policy.
“The UN has clearly stated that ‘China’ is used to refer to the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and the Ma administration is only fooling its people by saying that it means the Republic of China,” Hsu said, adding that the Executive Yuan’s handling of the issue was meant to pressure the Ministry of Education into adopting the same standard.
In response, Ministry of Education Secretary-General Wang Tsuo-tai (王作台) reiterated that both “the Japanese rule period” and “the Japanese occupation period” were allowed to be used in textbooks.
“The ministry respects each textbook writer’s own interpretation of historical events as long as they do not go beyond the statutory curriculum in a bid to protect their right to freedom of expression as guaranteed by the Constitution and to conform to the curriculum regulations and the legislative purposes of allowing privately compiled textbooks,” Wang said.
Additional Reporting by Rachel Lin
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard