The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday called on Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) to clarify her stance on the Ministry of Education’s “minor adjustment” to high-school curriculum guidelines, following coordinated nationwide protests by high-school students.
“So far, there have been students from as many as 227 schools taking part in the campaign against the opaque curriculum changes, and the DPP has repeatedly called on the government to immediately retract the plan to alter curriculum guidelines for history textbooks in such an illegitimate way,” DPP spokesperson Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) said. “The government should consult academics, teachers and other professionals to transparently adjust curriculum guidelines.”
“Hung, who is seeking the Chinese Nationalist Party’s [KMT] presidential candidacy, should clarify her own stance on the issue,” Cheng said.
The DPP spokesperson made the call following a series of protests by high-school students nationwide against the ministry’s plan to implement the adjustments to the curriculum guidelines, a move that they believe would lead to de-Taiwanization and a China-centric history education.
In an apparent bid to quell anger among students, Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) on Tuesday night attended a conference at National Taichung First Senior High School, which was the first school to protest against the ministry’s plan.
Students surrounded Wu’s car as he was preparing to leave the campus, saying that the minister had avoided addressing their real concerns, which triggered minor clashes.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is aware that Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong has weakened any possible sentiment for a “one country, two systems” arrangement for Taiwan, and has instructed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) politburo member Wang Huning (王滬寧) to develop new ways of defining cross-strait relations, Japanese news magazine Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday. A former professor of international politics at Fu Dan University, Wang is expected to develop a dialogue that could serve as the foundation for cross-strait unification, and Xi plans to use the framework to support a fourth term as president, Nikkei Asia quoted an anonymous source
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