Non-Partisan Solidarity Union Legislator May Chin (高金素梅) pressured National Taiwan University (NTU) to loan its athletic field for use by the “Sing! China: Shanghai-Taipei Music Festival,” according to school documents obtained by reporters.
The festival on Sept. 24 was called off just two hours after students protested over what they said was the school’s failure to prioritize students’ right to use campus facilities.
After the event was called off, three university students were assaulted, allegedly by members of the pro-unification Chinese Unity Promotion Party (CUPP).
Photo: Rachel Lin, Taipei Times
The university launched a review into its decision to host the event, which was one of series of events initiated as part of the Taipei-Shanghai Forum, and its investigative committee met for the first time on Saturday to discuss the issue.
A copy of the athletics department’s written report to the committee was obtained by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times), which showed that festival organizer Mu Chieh Ta Co (幕婕塔) on Aug. 8 filed a request to rent the field for the event and it was approved the following day.
The athletics department said in the report that it had been worried that hosting the festival, which would require cordoning off the athletic field for six days, might disrupt classes and excess noise might draw protests from area residents.
Due to those concerns, the department said it decided on Sept. 14 not host the festival and told Mu Chieh Ta to look elsewhere for a venue.
However, the university president’s office and the department on Sept. 15 received telephone calls from Chin’s legislative office chief Chen Chih-huang (陳智篁) and the Ministry of Education’s Legislative Liaison Section respectively to voice Chin’s concern over the reversal and wanting to know why the school no longer wanted to host the event, the report said.
The university reversed its decision again that day and agreed to host the event after a meeting with Mu Chieh Ta and Taipei Department of Cultural Affairs Deputy Commissioner Shen Hsi-hsing (沈希行), the report said.
The second reversal was attributable to pressure from Chin’s office and Mu Chieh Ta’s promises that it would manage noise levels at the concert, the report said.
Athletics department staff involved said they felt pressured by the phone calls from Chin’s office, the report said.
Deputy Minister of Education Tsai Ching-hwa (蔡清華) said the liaison section did receive a call from Chen Chih-huang on Sept. 15 asking it “to find out” why NTU had backed out of its contract with Mu Chieh Ta.
A liaison section employee then called the university in accordance with standard operating procedures and protocols, Tsai said.
During the phone call, the employee did not ask the school to host the festival, Tsai said, adding that neither he nor Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) were aware of the issue.
Chin yesterday posted on Facebook that allegations that she exerted pressure were an “exaggeration,” but that she supported cross-strait exchanges and Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) “rational attitude” to China.
Taiwan should not “continue to carry out purges, partisanship, political struggles against others and indulge in self-intoxication,” Chin wrote.
Chen Chih-huang said he “was unclear” the report’s allegations.
Additional reporting by Chen Fu-yu
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