Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ying (陳瑩) yesterday criticized the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) for advertising an event hosted by a Chinese organization promoting unification on its Web site, and asked whether the council was sponsoring it.
“On the CIP Web site, there is a link promoting a ‘Taiwanese Aboriginal culinary course,’ but when you look into it, you find that it’s an event organized by All China Federation of Taiwan Compatriots [ACTC] in Beijing,” Chen said during a question-and-answer session with CIP Minister Sun Ta-chuan (孫大川) at an Internal Administration Committee meeting yesterday. “I wonder if this is more of an event to promote unification than a simple culinary lesson, and if the CIP is a sponsor of the event?”
The event is organized by the Taipei-based Chinese Association for Cross-Strait Minority Cultural and Economic Exchanges.
ACTC is a Beijing-based group that has been promoting cross-strait unification. Of the 15-day itinerary scheduled for the event, which will be held from next Monday through Nov. 2, only eight days are dedicated to culinary lessons, with participants spending the remainder of the trip visiting tourist attractions in Beijing and Tianjin.
Chen also asked how “Aboriginal” the culinary training course was, as participants would only learn Han Chinese cooking and not Taiwanese Aboriginal cuisine.
“I also wonder why the CIP never advertises events held by Aboriginal museums in the country, but only this pro-unification event,” she said.
In response, Sun said the organizers of the event never applied for sponsorship from the CIP, but added he would investigate why the event was advertised on the CIP Web site.
Wang Mei-ping (王美蘋), an official at the council’s Department of Health and Welfare — which posted the information on the Web site — later told the media that they routinely posted information related to job opportunities or skill training courses on the Web site as they receive it.
“Frankly, we didn’t look into the details of the event before posting [the link]. We were surprised to discover that it is such a controversial event,” Wang said.
Meanwhile, lawmakers across party lines — including Chen, DPP Legislator Hsueh Ling (薛凌) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators Kung Wen-chi (孔文吉) and Kuo Su-chun (郭素春) — all criticized the minister for not knowing enough about the CIP’s activities.
The criticism arose after Sun was unable to answer most of the lawmakers’ questions as the committee reviewed the CIP budget for the next year.
Sun admitted he was not familiar enough with CIP business and said he would work to improve his performance.
“I only took office a little over 30 days ago and I’ve spent about 28 days visiting Aboriginal regions [devastated by Typhoon Morakot in August] to discuss reconstruction or resettlement plans with locals,” Sun said. “But I’ll do my best to familiarize myself with CIP business as soon as possible.”
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