The Ministry of Education on Wednesday announced that it would no longer recognize qualifications from three Chinese universities found to be arms of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) United Front Work Department.
Ignoring the reality of the CCP’s and military harassment against, and ambitions for the annexation of, the nation, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said: “Academics should be left to academics, education should be left to education.”
Huang harshly criticized the government for anti-China, pro-Taiwan rhetoric, thereby harming students in the process.
The reality is that, under the CCP’s one-party authoritarian system, even the highest-ranked Chinese universities must adhere to the principle that the party leads the school. The “About” page on Peking University’s Web site lists its CCP chairman He Guangcai (何光彩) before the president, Gong Qihuang (龔旗煌). It is evident that the party chairman is above the president.
Gong is also vice chair of the Peking University Council, which further proves that the president is second in command to the chairman. In Chinese top-ranked universities, it is abundantly clear who holds more power between the council and the president — there is a well-defined hierarchy.
The organizational structures of other universities, such as Beijing’s Tsinghua University and Shanghai’s Fudan University, are no different. As for the three blacklisted “united front” universities — Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, Jinan University in Guangzhou, and the Beijing Chinese Language and Culture College — there is even less to say. The facts are right before our eyes. Under the CCP’s rule, academics serve a political purpose. Where did Huang get the ridiculous idea that the two are unrelated?
Ultimately, the reason why academics are not simply academics and education is not simply education is due to the CCP’s “Party leads everything” ideology and its authoritarian system, using politics to oppress academics.
In the face of the CCP’s “united front” offensive, the ministry is merely exercising its right to protect hardworking Taiwanese students from being brainwashed. That is a good thing. However, Huang is turning a blind eye to the CCP’s covert “united front” tactics, remaining willfully ignorant. He even had the nerve to criticize the government’s well-intentioned protection of students against the CCP’s brainwashing and infiltration — it is foolish and malicious.
Huang Wei-ping works in public service and has a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Massachusetts.
Translated by Kyra Gustavsen
There are moments in history when America has turned its back on its principles and withdrawn from past commitments in service of higher goals. For example, US-Soviet Cold War competition compelled America to make a range of deals with unsavory and undemocratic figures across Latin America and Africa in service of geostrategic aims. The United States overlooked mass atrocities against the Bengali population in modern-day Bangladesh in the early 1970s in service of its tilt toward Pakistan, a relationship the Nixon administration deemed critical to its larger aims in developing relations with China. Then, of course, America switched diplomatic recognition
The international women’s soccer match between Taiwan and New Zealand at the Kaohsiung Nanzih Football Stadium, scheduled for Tuesday last week, was canceled at the last minute amid safety concerns over poor field conditions raised by the visiting team. The Football Ferns, as New Zealand’s women’s soccer team are known, had arrived in Taiwan one week earlier to prepare and soon raised their concerns. Efforts were made to improve the field, but the replacement patches of grass could not grow fast enough. The Football Ferns canceled the closed-door training match and then days later, the main event against Team Taiwan. The safety
The National Immigration Agency on Tuesday said it had notified some naturalized citizens from China that they still had to renounce their People’s Republic of China (PRC) citizenship. They must provide proof that they have canceled their household registration in China within three months of the receipt of the notice. If they do not, the agency said it would cancel their household registration in Taiwan. Chinese are required to give up their PRC citizenship and household registration to become Republic of China (ROC) nationals, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. He was referring to Article 9-1 of the Act
Strategic thinker Carl von Clausewitz has said that “war is politics by other means,” while investment guru Warren Buffett has said that “tariffs are an act of war.” Both aphorisms apply to China, which has long been engaged in a multifront political, economic and informational war against the US and the rest of the West. Kinetically also, China has launched the early stages of actual global conflict with its threats and aggressive moves against Taiwan, the Philippines and Japan, and its support for North Korea’s reckless actions against South Korea that could reignite the Korean War. Former US presidents Barack Obama
RSS