Sun Yat-sen School, established last year after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) took control of the party, has come under fire for allegedly using an office on National Taiwan University’s campus to campaign for Hung in the party’s chair election on May 20.
Earlier this week, a student found that the school — founded to promote Sun Yat-sen’s (孫逸仙) teachings and facilitate Taiwan’s unification with China — has an office on the campus leased by Chang Ya-chung (張亞中), a professor of political science at the university and a close aide of Hung, who was reportedly behind her controversial “one China, same interpretation” framework for cross-strait relations.
In August last year, when the KMT was formulating its plan to establish the school, Hung said the party should fight against “cultural Taiwanese independence” by spreading the KMT’s core values, Chinese culture and the Republic of China’s historical viewpoint through the institution.
The party later said it would establish branches of the school at six major locations in the nation.
During a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan yesterday, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Kuo-shu (黃國書) asked Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) whether it was legal to use the school as Hung’s campaign office.
Huang said he had received reports of people using telephones at the school to canvass for votes for Hung, adding that he dispatched assistants to verify the reports, which were found to be true.
He demanded that the Ministry of Education take corrective measures over the use of a school campus to conduct political activities.
Pan said the ministry was not aware of any political activities carried out by the Sun Yat-sen School, but added that the agency strictly forbids political groups from using campuses for campaigning.
The ministry is to consult the university over a possible breach of its policies by Chang, Pan said.
Chang earlier this week said on Facebook that a group borrowed the office to hold an event, during which some members of the group made telephone calls to their friends and discussed the KMT election.
However, university secretary-general Lin Ta-te (林達德) said that it was Chang who borrowed the office.
Following a review of the incident, the university has ruled that Chang contravened its policies and is to terminate the contract with the school and ban it from using the building, Lin said.
“It is the university’s unwavering stance to bar political campaigns from campus,” he said.
Additional reporting by Alison Hsiao
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