Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Katharine Chang (張小月) yesterday urged Beijing to refrain from setting any preconditions for cross-strait cultural and academic exchanges after China’s finance and education ministries implemented a new rule requiring Taiwanese wanting to apply for Chinese scholarships to acknowledge the “one China” principle.
“We believe cultural and academic exchanges across the Taiwan Strait, such as Taiwanese students pursuing their studies in China, should be carried out on the basis of equality and dignity, and without any prerequisites,” Chang said on the sidelines of an international seminar on China’s power structure and policies.
The two-day seminar, which opened yesterday at Taipei’s Far Eastern Plaza Hotel, was organized by the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies at the behest of the MAC.
Photo: CNA
The establishment of preconditions are particularly unbefitting for Taiwanese, who treasure freedom, democracy and free thinking, Chang said.
“This is not the kind of situation we want to see,” she said.
Chang was responding to reporters’ requests for comment on the “Regulations Governing Scholarship for Taiwanese Students” promulgated by the Chinese Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Education on Oct. 13.
The regulations were drawn up to “bolster the central government’s Taiwan policy, push forward peaceful unification of the motherland and encourage more Taiwanese students to study in the mainland’s universities and research institutes so as to increase their identification with the motherland,” a Chinese government statement said.
Under Article 3 of the regulations, only Taiwanese who identify with the “one China” principle and unification can apply for a state scholarship.
According to Article 15, recipients of the scholarship could lose their money if they “say or do anything that opposes the ‘one China’ principle,” break the law or participate in illegal groups and organizations.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) spoke of people-centered policies several times in his report to the Chinese Communist Party’s 19th National Congress last month, Chang said, echoing President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) determination to base her policymaking on mainstream public opinion.
“The essence is to put the people in our minds as move toward our common values,” Chang said, expressing the hope that both sides of the Strait would remove all political prerequisites and resume dialogue.
The Ministry of Education on Tuesday said that students awarded scholarships in China should evaluate their situation and be aware of the political risks.
Academic exchanges should not suffer from political meddling and the government does not have a policy of encouraging Taiwanese to study in China, Department of International and Cross-strait Education Affairs Director Bi Tzu-an (畢祖安) said.
“Scholarships should be apolitical,” he said.
There are about 11,000 Taiwanese studying in China, he said.
Chinese studying in Taiwan are not troubled by political concerns and the government encourages them by providing a friendly environment, he said.
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