The US and Taiwan yesterday launched a new bilateral education initiative that American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Brent Christensen said was aimed at expanding access to Mandarin and English-language instruction and safeguarding academic freedom.
At a ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei for the US-Taiwan Education Initiative, Christensen said that it would “highlight Taiwan’s important role in providing Chinese-language instruction to Americans and to people around the world, and seeks to expand Taiwan’s influence in this area.”
As part of the initiative, the AIT and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding on international education cooperation that focuses on language education.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The memorandum is expected to remain in effect for five years, with the possibility of an extension, the AIT said.
The two sides have agreed to enhance and to expand their existing educational exchange programs, Christensen said, adding that once regular travel resumes following the COVID-19 pandemic, more Americans would be able to teach and study in Taiwan, and vice versa.
The initiative is “set against the backdrop of two distinct, but related trends,” he said.
These trends were the closure of Confucius Institutes by universities around the world over their role in China-led “censorship and malign influence campaigns,” and Taiwan’s increased commitment to English-language education.
Despite Confucius Institutes in the US closing, there continues to be a strong interest among American and international students in learning Mandarin, Christensen said, adding that Taiwan “can and should play a key role.”
The US is also eager to help provide English-language instruction to support Taiwan’s goal of becoming bilingual by 2030, he said.
Christensen said that the two trends were “rooted in the same principle: Young people should be able to pursue academic and professional opportunities in an environment free from coercion and censorship.”
The new initiative would provide a platform for the US and Taiwan to expand their cooperation in the pursuit of their shared interests and values, he said.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said that it was “particularly meaningful” for Taiwan to strengthen bilingual education cooperation with the US at a time “when academic freedom and freedom of speech in the US and other countries are being invaded by certain political forces.”
Wu described the initiative as a “starting point for comprehensive educational cooperation” between the two nations.
Taiwan is the seventh-largest source of international students in the US, with more than 23,000 Taiwanese enrolled in colleges and universities, Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a video message to the ceremony.
“Taiwan is also becoming an increasingly attractive destination for American students studying abroad,” she said, adding that the number of American students in Taiwan grew by more than 48 percent last year.
CAUTION URGED: Strong winds and heavy rain are forecast throughout the nation, even though the CWB was not sure whether the eye would make landfall in Taiwan The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Chanthu, as it continued to gain power while approaching Taiwan from the southeast. As of 8pm last night, Chanthu was about 410km southeast of Pingtung County’s Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the southernmost point of Taiwan proper, moving northwest at 15kph toward the Bashi Channel. The typhoon had maximum sustained winds of 209kph, with gusts of up to 263kph, bureau data showed. Chanthu, which is likely to come closest to the nation over the weekend, could pose a threat throughout Taiwan proper, but particularly in Taitung and Pingtung, the bureau said. Strong winds and heavy
CLOSED FOR DISINFECTION: Two of the three local cases were linked to a cluster infection at a kindergarten, while the other case works at a McDonald’s restaurant The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported three new local COVID-19 infections and 11 imported cases, but no deaths. The local cases are two men and a woman aged between 20 and 80 who reside in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, the CECC said in a news release. Two of them are linked to a cluster infection at a kindergarten in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋), said Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman. He said they are both associated with the mother of a kindergarten student, who was earlier confirmed to have
BIOLOGICAL AGENT: A containment exercise was held in southern Tainan, in response to a mock assault where troops were assumed to be attacked by bioweapons The live-fire component of this year’s annual Han Kuang military exercises, Taiwan’s major war games involving all military branches, began yesterday morning and is to run until Friday to test the armed forces’ capability to fend off a Chinese invasion. The 37th edition of the annual event officially began after the Ministry of National Defense’s Joint Operations Command Center, also known as the Hengshan Command Center, announced the initiation of the five-day live-fire drills. Yesterday’s drills were focused on testing the military’s preservation and maintenance of combat capabilities in the event of a full-scale Chinese invasion. As part of the drills, air force
‘RAISING TAIWAN’S VISIBILITY’: Premier Su Tseng-chang said changing TECRO’s name to include ‘Taiwan’ would make the representative office more recognizable The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday declined comment on a Financial Times report that the name of Taiwan’s representative office in Washington might be changed, saying only that bolstering and upgrading ties with the US has been the government’s long-term objective. The ministry made the comments after the UK-based newspaper reported on that US President Joe Biden’s administration is considering allowing the government to use the word “Taiwan” in the office’s title. The US is “seriously considering a request from Taiwan to change the name of its mission in the US capital from ‘Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office’ [TECRO] to ‘Taiwan
RSS