Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday.
China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials.
A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or facilitating programs with the two Chinese universities would be announced at an annual meeting with Taiwanese college and university deans, he said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The prohibition would apply to public and private high schools, colleges and universities, and their vocational equivalents nationwide, he said.
Any institution that contravenes the order would have their government subsidies withdrawn, Cheng said in reference to private education providers not subordinate to the Ministry of Education.
The measure is necessary to prevent China from systematically targeting Taiwanese students with its “united front” work, he said, adding that education providers have an obligation to protect national security.
Taiwanese have a constitutional right to education, but the two Chinese universities do not serve an educational role, as shown by the United Front Work Department’s involvement in their affairs, he said.
Taiwanese colleges and universities are already forbidden from collaborating with education providers run by the Chinese Ministry of National Defense, Cheng said.
The Ministry of Education’s authority applies only to the administration of high schools, colleges and universities, not students, who are free to attend any institution they want, he said.
The two Chinese universities are continuing their efforts to recruit Taiwanese high-school graduates following the conclusion of this year’s national college entrance examinations, a source said on condition of anonymity.
Separately, in July last year, education authorities warned about the risks of participating in Chinese academic events after the Mainland Affairs Council raised its travel advisory for China to “orange.”
A source familiar with Huaqiao University said that the institution has “extremely low standards” for Taiwanese applicants and that its graduate programs have a fixed quota for students from Taiwan.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) studied law at Huaqiao University, the source added.
On Tuesday, Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源), who attended Huaqiao University, said that professors there taught “Xi Jinping thought” and criticized the US.
“When I applied through a special program [to enroll], Huaqiao University would take any Taiwanese applicant, even if they had not graduated from high school,” said Chen, whose stage name is Mannam PYC (閩南狼).
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have declared they survived recall votes to remove them from office today, although official results are still pending as the vote counting continues. Although final tallies from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are still pending, preliminary results indicate that the recall campaigns against all seven KMT lawmakers have fallen short. As of 6:10 pm, Taichung Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Hsinchu County Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), Nantou County Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and New Taipei City Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) had all announced they
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as the chipmaker prepares for volume production of Nvidia’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips. It was Huang’s third trip to Taiwan this year, indicating that Nvidia’s supply chain is deeply connected to Taiwan. Its partners also include packager Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and server makers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達). “My main purpose is to visit TSMC,” Huang said yesterday. “As you know, we have next-generation architecture called Rubin. Rubin is very advanced. We have now taped out six brand new
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
RSS