The Mainland Affairs Council and lawmakers yesterday accused a visiting Chinese university student of denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty by referring to the national baseball team that won a first-ever Premier12 title as “China, Taipei team” (中國台北隊).
“We deeply regret the Chinese student’s words, that have hurt the feelings of Taiwanese... The Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, as the organizers, should remind group members not to use inappropriate words and behavior,” a council statement said.
“We hope these young Chinese can accurately observe the true views of Taiwanese, which would be a positive development for interactions between young people on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait,” it said.
Photo: Hsu Kuo-chen, Taipei Times
A group of 40 Chinese university students and faculty members arrived in Taiwan on Wednesday last week for a nine-day trip at the invitation of the foundation established by former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
When touring the baseball stadium in Taichung on Sunday, one of the students, Song Siyao (宋思瑤) from Shanghai’s Fudan University, was interviewed by reporters and asked her thoughts on Taiwan winning the Premier12 baseball competition.
“We want to congratulate the China, Taipei team,” she said. “We wish mainland China and Taiwan compatriots [台灣同胞] can be like the team Chinatrust Brothers and work together for the motherland [祖國] to take baseball to a higher level.”
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) denounced the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, saying it organized the visit on the pretext of academic exchanges and interactions between students, when in reality it is engaging in Chinese political propaganda by using “united front” rhetoric.
“If they are engaging in proper and healthy interactions here, why would the Chinese student talk about the ‘China, Taipei team’ and hurting the public’s feelings,” Wu said. “When they are here, they can enjoy Taiwan’s democratic system, academic freedoms and a society full of diversity. We hope they can take those perspectives back to China.”
Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎), director of Taiwan Forever Society, also criticized the student.
“The Chinese students are forceful in barging their way into Taiwan and belittling our national baseball team as the ‘China, Taipei team.’ This is ‘united front’ rhetoric aimed at denying Taiwan’s status and disparaging Taiwanese baseball,” he said.
“Ma owes an apology to all Taiwanese baseball fans... He has created this stage for Chinese students to attack Team Taiwan and he is the mastermind behind this controversy, while we the taxpayers are still paying for his pension and for his protection as a former president,” he added.
The incident also sparked a furor online, with Taiwanese posting angry messages on baseball and sports Web sites.
“Our baseball winners are Team Taiwan, we don’t know who ‘China, Taipei team’ are,” one user wrote.
“This female student has nice smile and talks sweetly, but her words are nauseating,” another wrote.
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) quoted the Taiwanese song One Small Umbrella (一支小雨傘) to describe his nation’s situation. Wong’s use of such a song shows Singapore’s familiarity with Taiwan’s culture and is a perfect reflection of exchanges between the two nations, Representative to Singapore Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said yesterday in a post on Facebook. Wong quoted the song, saying: “As the rain gets heavier, I will take care of you, and you,” in Mandarin, using it as a metaphor for Singaporeans coming together to face challenges. Other Singaporean politicians have also used Taiwanese songs
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
CLAMPING DOWN: At the preliminary stage on Jan. 1 next year, only core personnel of the military, the civil service and public schools would be subject to inspections Regular checks are to be conducted from next year to clamp down on military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers with Chinese citizenship or Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Article 9-1 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) stipulates that Taiwanese who obtain Chinese household registration or a Chinese passport would be deprived of their Taiwanese citizenship and lose their right to work in the military, public service or public schools, it said. To identify and prevent the illegal employment of holders of Chinese ID cards or
RSS