Taiwan is a free and a democratic nation working to consolidate its democracy and preserve its status as a rights-respecting nation. China, on the other hand, is a one-party state led by a despotic dictatorship.
Given the obvious differences between Taiwan’s democratic system of government and the authoritarian rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime, which lead to different understandings about what a public servant is, many Taiwanese have been baffled to learn that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government officials have been conducting so-called business trips across the Taiwan Strait in hopes of picking up lessons from the Chinese government.
It was reported that a delegation of officials from the Examination Yuan’s Civil Service Protection and Training Commission, alongside human resources department heads from agencies such as the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Regional Civil Service’s Development Institute, on Nov. 13 went on a six-day trip to China for seminars on “leadership development and training strategies for public servants.”
In its post-trip report, beyond describing the seminars as an important reference as the agency crafts its future training policies, the delegation lauded the administrative schools it visited as having “a commendable attitude in seeking truth from facts and a spirit for a rule of law,” adding that it can learn media outlet communication strategies and crisis management from the Chinese seminars.
The report’s absurdity is beyond flabbergasting.
The commission’s Web site says its duties include making recommendations about the protection of rights related to civil servants’ status, rank and other regulations. It also takes care of such areas as promotions, counseling and coordination in protection affairs. Additionally, it handles high-ranking civil service training and the development of training evaluation techniques, among other things.
What exactly does a government agency responsible for instilling the importance of civil service training hope that Taiwan’s civil servants could learn from China, which has no real free elections, no freedom of the press and no respect for human rights?
Commission vice chairman Samson Lee (李嵩賢) said that attending seminars of this type in China does not address political issues, adding that people should not avoid trying to understand China just because it is an authoritarian regime.
Lee’s remarks are anything but convincing. No one is against facilitating exchanges to gain insights into China’s systems, but it is quite a different thing when such trips are conducted with a notion to learn lessons from China.
China has no real bureaucracy, as all its so-called civil servants are monitored by the CCP and serve at the party’s call, only for the party.
Taiwan, on the other hand, is a democratic nation whose public servants are expected to adhere to the principle of administrative neutrality.
The commission’s case is not isolated. According to budget data compiled by Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Yeh Chin-ling (葉津鈴), a total of NT$117.7 million (US$3.72 million) has been appropriated by Cabinet-level agencies for travel to China.
Trips to China take up more than half of all overseas travel for agencies such as the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture, the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission and the Vocational Assistance Commission for Retired Servicemen.
The culture ministry leads, with NT$13.47 million budgeted.
No one is against cross-strait exchanges. However, Taiwanese must keep a vigilant eye on the apparent trend of KMT government officials squandering taxpayers’ money by making unnecessary trips to China — especially with such distorted purposes as “learning from China’s experience.”
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