After weeks of relatively tame university exchanges, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson and presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday answered cross-strait challenges posed by Chinese students in a lively debate.
Members of a 300-student audience at Shih Hsin University, about two-fifths of them from China on a study-abroad program, asked her respectful but skeptical questions about her party’s opposition to a broader opening to Chinese students.
“I support letting students learn in different places and having access to different experiences and cultures ... but there are practical considerations,” Tsai said when explaining why she favored limited student exchanges with China.
The considerations included a need to focus educational resources on Taiwanese students and keep the job market closed to cross-strait job seekers, she said, sidestepping a question on whether she planned to expand the exchanges if elected next year.
However, Tsai struggled to respond when a Chinese student pointed out to rousing applause that Chinese students were currently barred from entering the job market, unable to receive scholarships and other subsidies, but paid the same tuition fees as Taiwanese students.
On the other hand, the student said, China has opened up its borders to Taiwanese students and created “many beneficial conditions” to entice them to work and study across the strait.
“Other countries use foreign students and the funds they pay to help subsidize their own students,” said the student, who was not identified by name.
She said Tsai “did not seem too enthusiastic” about the issue, despite Tsai’s remarks to the contrary.
In response, Tsai asked what would happen if Taiwan and China’s roles were reversed.
“If Taiwan had the same population as China, or if we had more people and [China] less, would China still widely open up its [borders] to students from Taiwan?” Tsai asked, also to rousing applause.
While Tsai has spoken at universities nationwide as part of her presidential campaign, this is the first time she spoke to an audience almost half-filled with Chinese students, some of whom said they supported her.
One young audience member from China told Tsai that he was a long-time admirer.
“Hopefully my remarks don’t make it back across the Strait, but I’ve been a huge fan ever since I saw Tsai back on Chinese media,” said the student, adding that he saw no reason why Taiwan, “if it wanted to become a ‘normal’ country,” needed to be afraid of China. Instead, it should “open up its heart,” he said.
Despite having only 23 million people, Taiwan should have “enough confidence to deal with China,” the student added.
Tsai responded that: “It’s not fear, it’s only concern.”
“We are concerned that not everyone in China is like you, someone who uses reason and understanding to view Taiwan,” Tsai said. “Then there’s also the concern over the lack of a democratic process in China ... and the problem of the missiles China has aimed at Taiwan.”
Tsai was cautious when asked by a Taiwanese student about her cross-strait policy direction, sticking to her mantra that Taiwan and China needed to maintain a relationship that was “peaceful but different” and was “peaceful and seeking commonality.”
The saying was first used in February when Tsai announced an updated approach on how the DPP would handle relations with China in the future that would stress the two countries’ similarities in responsibilities and interests, but also historical, political and societal differences.
“We must acknowledge that those differences exist. However, we have to co-exist with China ... we must have a peaceful and stable relationship, and this is where our similarities are found,” the presidential candidate said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
RSS