Ministry censors textbooks
The Ministry of Education’s adjustments to school curriculums are running counter to the mainstream view of Taiwanese history and identification with Taiwan.
The procedure for making these adjustments was arbitrary and lacked transparency, and the High Administrative Court has issued a verdict saying that the adjustments have not followed proper procedures. The result of this verdict was that the 13 cities and counties run by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) mayors and county commissioners decided that they will not adopt the new curriculums.
Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華), who succeeded Chiang Wei-ling (蔣偉寧) after Chiang had to step down after he was linked to an academic paper peer-review scandal, is pushing ahead and spreading the lie that only 23 percent of the parts dealing with Taiwanese history have been changed, although the real figure is more than 50 percent.
The adjustments run counter to the principle that requires that a curriculum should be clear and simple, open and not draw any conclusions. In addition, the adjustments are full of mistakes.
The most recent version published by San Min Book Co has removed historical images depicting the White Terror era and the 228 Incident from the chapter on human rights, which raises the question of what will happen to transitional justice in Taiwan.
Will the “Taiwan Area” be the first the of seven issues (七不講) — along with Western democracy, universal values, civil society, liberalism and press freedom — suggested by the Chinese Communist Party to be banned?
Are these really issues that should not be discussed in Taiwan’s educational system? If we do not discuss these issues, then what will happen to Taiwan’s core values?
Lee Tao-yung
Tainan
Battery plan too exclusive
A new company in Taiwan, Gogoro Inc, plans to start selling electric scooters in the summer with the government’s support, according to Forbes magazine.
Gogoro has raised US$40 million in funding from Ruentex Group CEO Samuel Yin (尹衍樑) and US$10 million from HTC cofounder Cher Wang (王雪紅), a Forbes article said.
It adds: The company is getting prime real estate for its battery-swapping GoStations in a deal with the government.
The idea is a good one, but for the fact that the government appears to be colluding with one company that is backed by some of the wealthiest people in the nation.
Taiwan has many companies making scooter batteries and electric scooters. It could be a big industry. Electric scooters could reduce noise and air pollution. They could also save energy and reduce dependence on imported fuels.
The government should be working with all local companies in the electric scooter business to create a battery standard that could be used by all of the nation’s scooter makers. A standard battery could be used in GoStations, so that any person with a locally made electric scooter could swap batteries easily.
The creation of a battery standard for all of Taiwan’s electric scooters would help local companies expand to foreign markets more easily, backed by a widespread standard created in Taiwan.
The government might have good intentions, but it might be getting into trouble by supporting only Gogoro. The government might need to think more carefully about this plan.
Zachary Alan Patterson
Tamsui, Taipei
US President Donald Trump last week told reporters that he had signed about 12 letters to US trading partners, which were set to be sent out yesterday, levying unilateral tariff rates of up to 70 percent from Aug. 1. However, Trump did not say which countries the letters would be sent to, nor did he discuss the specific tariff rates, reports said. The news of the tariff letters came as Washington and Hanoi reached a trade deal earlier last week to cut tariffs on Vietnamese exports to the US to 20 percent from 46 percent, making it the first Asian country
On Monday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) delivered a welcome speech at the ILA-ASIL Asia-Pacific Research Forum, addressing more than 50 international law experts from more than 20 countries. With an aim to refute the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) claim to be the successor to the 1945 Chinese government and its assertion that China acquired sovereignty over Taiwan, Lin articulated three key legal positions in his speech: First, the Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Declaration were not legally binding instruments and thus had no legal effect for territorial disposition. All determinations must be based on the San Francisco Peace
As things heated up in the Middle East in early June, some in the Pentagon resisted American involvement in the Israel-Iran war because it would divert American attention and resources from the real challenge: China. This was exactly wrong. Rather, bombing Iran was the best thing that could have happened for America’s Asia policy. When it came to dealing with the Iranian nuclear program, “all options are on the table” had become an American mantra over the past two decades. But the more often US administration officials insisted that military force was in the cards, the less anyone believed it. After
During an impromptu Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally on Tuesday last week to protest what the party called the unfairness of the judicial system, a young TPP supporter said that if Taiwan goes to war, he would “surrender to the [Chinese] People’s Liberation Army [PLA] with unyielding determination.” The rally was held after former Taipei deputy mayor Pong Cheng-sheng’s (彭振聲) wife took her life prior to Pong’s appearance in court to testify in the Core Pacific corruption case involving former Taipei mayor and TPP chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲). The TPP supporter said President William Lai (賴清德) was leading them to die on
RSS