The National Academy for Educational Research on Thursday last week reached a consensus with textbook publishers to include the original text of UN Resolution 2758 in school history textbooks, to teach students that the resolution says nothing about Taiwan, despite misinterpretations by China to isolate the nation.
The education system while the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was in power after it retreated from China to Taiwan in 1949 inculcated a China-centered nationality, including teaching that “there is only one China — the motherland of Taiwan.”
As for Taiwan’s international status, textbooks used to focus on the 1943 Cairo Declaration, which states that a consensus was reached by the then-leaders of the US, the UK and the Republic of China (ROC) at a meeting in Cairo to restore Taiwan to the ROC. However, it has never been signed or ratified to be an international legally binding agreement.
The KMT’s manipulative agenda was obviously aimed to consolidate its authoritarian rule over Taiwan and to oppress Taiwanese to help in its pipe dream of retaking China.
The biased indoctrination has turned into a pretext for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and pro-China forces in Taiwan to promote the “reunification” of the two nations. In reality, it is just Beijing’s ambition to annex Taiwan, which the CCP has never ruled.
The immediate task — which is a big challenge — is to clarify Taiwan’s sovereignty and neutral international status amid intensified cognitive and legislative warfare in the past few years to belittle Taiwan by calling it a part of China. It misuses Resolution 2758, which was passed by the UN General Assembly in 1971, to support its “one China” principle and to position Taiwan as its subordinate.
However, the resolution states: “Recognizing that the representatives of the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are the only lawful representatives of China to the UN” and “to expel forthwith the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek [蔣介石] from the place which they unlawfully occupy at the UN and in all the organizations related to it.” It makes no mention of Taiwan.
The Academy for Educational Research, which is responsible for initiating school curriculum guidelines and reviewing textbooks, has proposed that history textbooks include the resolution’s original text in English and Mandarin, and make a clear statement that it asserts only the PRC’s legitimate representation of China at the UN, but never addresses the sovereignty of Taiwan or the ROC; neither does it preclude Taiwan from participation at the UN or other international organizations.
Textbooks should not only contain the Cairo Declaration, but also cover the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty and the 1952 ROC-Japan Peace Treaty, which ended World War II in Asia and Japanese occupation of overseas territories, but left the status of Taiwan undetermined and, according to official records of the negotiations of the San Francisco Treaty, to be resolved in accordance with the principles of peaceful settlement of disputes and self-determination enshrined in the UN Charter.
The Ministry of Education also plans to develop supplemental teaching materials on national identification, as well as helping students learn more about China and how to identify its propaganda.
In a democratic society, education and school textbooks should be consistently updated to reflect the latest historical research and international reality. Taking in 2006, following Taiwan’s democratization after lifting the Martial Law, the Taiwanese history finally was allowed to be taught as an individual subject for the first time. Taiwanese students could learn about the island based more on Taiwan native consciousness, instead from a complete China-oriented standpoint.
While a growing number of countries are objecting China’s distortion of the UN resolution and its one-China principle, Taiwan should make more efforts to help young people achieve a more comprehensive understanding of Taiwan and debunk the myth of a so-called “motherland,” which has long threatened to take over Taiwan by force.
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
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