China is to ban its students from applying to study in Taiwan’s schools in the semester beginning in September, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and cross-strait relations, the Chinese Ministry of Education said in a statement yesterday.
Chinese students currently enrolled in Taiwanese universities can apply to remain there, it said.
The policy regarding the admission of Taiwanese students to universities in China remains unchanged, it added.
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
“The pressing matters at hand include how to address the current obstacles that Chinese students [enrolled in universities in Taiwan] face in returning to the schools to study. It is important to safeguard their legitimate rights,” it said, referring to the Ministry of Education’s Feb. 3 decision to stop Chinese students from returning to Taiwanese universities after the winter break to contain the viral outbreak.
To ensure the education rights of Chinese students, the ministry offered other learning resources, such as online courses, as alternatives.
During a regular news briefing yesterday, Mainland Affairs Council spokesman Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said it regrets that China has unilaterally halted Chinese students from studying in Taiwan.
Since Taiwan’s government allowed Chinese students to study in Taiwan from 2011, it has not altered its policy of welcoming Chinese students, he said.
Nearly 8,000 Chinese students have enrolled in Taiwan’s schools, although only 800 are currently in Taiwan, he said.
Universities in Taiwan this month would normally begin accepting applications from Chinese students, and publish the results no later than July, so that they would have ample time to prepare to come to Taiwan before September, University Entrance Committee for Mainland Chinese Students secretary-general Chang Hong-de (張鴻德) said.
The committee and its Chinese counterpart were not aware of the new policy until yesterday, Chang said, adding that the announcement came abruptly.
The committee requested that its counterpart confirm details with the Chinese government, such as how the restrictions apply, so it can better respond to the situation, he said.
Last year, 3,800 Chinese students were admitted to Taiwanese universities, including 800 high-school graduates, 1,500 university graduates and 1,500 graduates from junior college programs, Chang said.
About 40 percent of the Chinese students that apply to graduate schools in Taiwan are already in Taiwan studying for a bachelor’s degree, he said.
It is still difficult to estimate how the new restrictions would affect Taiwan, he added.
SWITCH TO BEIJING: The government severed diplomatic relations about an hour after Honduras announced the move, saying that no semi-official ties would be maintained Taiwan severed diplomatic ties with Honduras and ended all cooperation with the Central American country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, about an hour and a half after the Honduran Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Twitter at 8am Taiwan time that the nation would cut its ties with Taiwan. Honduran President Xiomara Castro on Wednesday sent Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduardo Enrique Reina to Beijing to negotiate the establishment of diplomatic relations. She announced the plan on March 14 on Twitter. “To safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty and dignity, Taiwan is terminating diplomatic ties with Honduras with immediate effect” after communication with
TRADE MISSION: After Fijian elections in December last year, pro-democratic parties formed a coalition and overruled a name change imposed by the former government The Taipei Trade Office in Fiji has been restored to its former name, the Trade Mission of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the Republic of Fiji, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Fiji on Friday last week issued a note verbale to the office saying that the name change was retroactively effective from March 15, Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Director-General Wallace Chow (周民淦) told a news conference in Taipei. The mission’s diplomatic privileges have been reinstated as stipulated in Fiji’s Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities Act, which was enacted in 1971, Chow said. Taiwan set up a trade
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday departed for a 12-day trip to China as scheduled, despite calls for him to cancel the trip after Honduras severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan as an apparent result of China’s dollar diplomacy. “This is my first trip to China. I was 37 when I began handling cross-strait affairs in the government. Now I am 73 and have waited 36 years for the visit. It is indeed a bit too long, but I am glad I can go,” Ma of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) told reporters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. “Aside from paying respects to
‘INDISPENSABLE ROLE’: Despite stopovers in the US, Tsai said the aim of her trip is to ‘demonstrate determination to deepen exchanges’ with the allies of the nation President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday afternoon left Taiwan on a 10-day trip to Central America that includes stopovers in New York and Los Angeles. “Through this visit, I will express my gratitude to diplomatic partners for their support of Taiwan,” Tsai said at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport shortly before boarding the plane. The trip to Guatemala and Belize — her first overseas journey since the COVID-19 pandemic began sweeping around the world in early 2020 — aims to “demonstrate Taiwan’s determination to deepen exchanges” with its Central American allies, she said. Tsai said that she and her delegation would also explore the possibility
RSS