A National Tsing Hua University student on Monday began a hunger strike to protest what he said was a flawed decisionmaking process regarding the university’s merger with National Hsinchu University of Education, which officially began yesterday.
Hsu Guangcheng (徐光成), former president of the Tsing Hua Students’ Association, has been fasting since 6pm on Monday, drinking only water to prevent himself from falling seriously ill.
Hsu said that Tsing Hua officials ignored students’ and faculty’s objections to the merger and dodged questions regarding the school’s staffing and funding after the merger.
Hsu demanded that Tsing Hua president Hocheng Hong (賀陳弘) renounce and apologize for arbitrarily changing a proposal on the merger and for saying that he has the final decision on whether the proposal should be submitted to the university’s management for review.
“The proposal was passed after bypassing due procedures,” Hsu said, calling on the Ministry of Education to intervene and order Tsing Hua to rescind the merger and urging officials, faculty and students attending a meeting next week to veto a proposal to amend the university’s articles of association.
Hsu and the university have different interpretations of the university’s handling of the merger, Tsing Hua Office of Students’ Affairs director Hsieh Hsiao-ling (謝小苓) said.
Hsieh urged Hsu not to harm himself to express his opinions, saying that the school was open to dialogue.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
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