Legislators and educators have urged the Ministry of Education to tighten control over cross-strait educational interactions after China’s Fujian Normal University said it is working with a Taiwanese association to compile history textbooks for high-school students.
The university and Taiwan’s Chinese Classics Association last week presented their collaborative textbooks for high-school Chinese curricula at many Taiwanese schools, including Daren Girls’ Senior High School in Taipei, Dasi Senior High School in Taoyuan and Guoguang Laboratory School in Kaohsiung.
The two would start compiling another history textbook next month, university vice president Zheng Jiajian (鄭家建) told reporters in Taipei.
Zheng’s application to come to Taiwan said he wanted to attend a teaching forum, the National Immigration Agency said, adding that he might have broken the law if he is found to have introduced books.
The agency said that it would ask his inviter and the ministry to confirm his purpose for visiting.
The university and the association have been working on the textbook project for four-and-a-half years and adhere to the so-called “1992 consensus,” Chinese media reported.
The “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese government that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
The first and second volumes of their Chinese textbooks last year passed the National Academy for Education Research’s review, with more than 20 high schools adopting them.
Earlier this year, the team launched the third and fourth volumes, and teachers’ manuals.
The materials aim to propagate Chinese cultural heritage, Zheng said.
The ministry has been turning a blind eye to the matter, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Kuo-shu (黃國書) said.
Conveying a China-centric perspective, the materials are China’s tools for “brainwashing” Taiwanese and are a part of its “united front” tactics, Huang said, urging the ministry to better regulate educational cross-strait interactions.
The teaching materials are China’s “Trojan horses” to politically infiltrate Taiwanese campuses, National Dong Hwa University professor Shih Cheng-feng (施正鋒) said.
Authorities are unguarded against China’s propaganda tactics, even after many schools in the West have raised concerns about the threat posed by China’s Confucius Institutes, Shih added.
UPDATED (3:40pm): A suspected gas explosion at a shopping mall in Taichung this morning has killed four people and injured 20 others, as emergency responders continue to investigate. The explosion occurred on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in Situn District (西屯) at 11:33am. One person was declared dead at the scene, while three people were declared deceased later after receiving emergency treatment. Another 20 people sustained major or minor injuries. The Taichung Fire Bureau said it received a report of the explosion at 11:33am and sent rescuers to respond. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, it said. The National Fire
ACCOUNTABILITY: The incident, which occured at a Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store in Taichung, was allegedly caused by a gas explosion on the 12th floor Shin Kong Group (新光集團) president Richard Wu (吳昕陽) yesterday said the company would take responsibility for an apparent gas explosion that resulted in four deaths and 26 injuries at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Zhonggang Store in Taichung yesterday. The Taichung Fire Bureau at 11:33am yesterday received a report saying that people were injured after an explosion at the department store on Section 3 of Taiwan Boulevard in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯). It sent 56 ambulances and 136 paramedics to the site, with the people injured sent to Cheng Ching Hospital’s Chung Kang Branch, Wuri Lin Shin Hospital, Taichung Veterans General Hospital or Chung
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘LAWFUL USE’: The last time a US warship transited the Taiwan Strait was on Oct. 20 last year, and this week’s transit is the first of US President Donald Trump’s second term Two US military vessels transited the Taiwan Strait from Sunday through early yesterday, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement, the first such mission since US President Donald Trump took office last month. The two vessels sailed south through the Strait, the ministry said, adding that it closely monitored nearby airspace and waters at the time and observed nothing unusual. The ministry did not name the two vessels, but the US Navy identified them as the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and the Pathfinder-class survey ship USNS Bowditch. The ships carried out a north-to-south transit from