Non-Partisan Solidarity Union Legislator May Chin (高金素梅) pressured National Taiwan University (NTU) to loan its athletic field for use by the “Sing! China: Shanghai-Taipei Music Festival,” according to school documents obtained by reporters.
The festival on Sept. 24 was called off just two hours after students protested over what they said was the school’s failure to prioritize students’ right to use campus facilities.
After the event was called off, three university students were assaulted, allegedly by members of the pro-unification Chinese Unity Promotion Party (CUPP).
Photo: Rachel Lin, Taipei Times
The university launched a review into its decision to host the event, which was one of series of events initiated as part of the Taipei-Shanghai Forum, and its investigative committee met for the first time on Saturday to discuss the issue.
A copy of the athletics department’s written report to the committee was obtained by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times), which showed that festival organizer Mu Chieh Ta Co (幕婕塔) on Aug. 8 filed a request to rent the field for the event and it was approved the following day.
The athletics department said in the report that it had been worried that hosting the festival, which would require cordoning off the athletic field for six days, might disrupt classes and excess noise might draw protests from area residents.
Due to those concerns, the department said it decided on Sept. 14 not host the festival and told Mu Chieh Ta to look elsewhere for a venue.
However, the university president’s office and the department on Sept. 15 received telephone calls from Chin’s legislative office chief Chen Chih-huang (陳智篁) and the Ministry of Education’s Legislative Liaison Section respectively to voice Chin’s concern over the reversal and wanting to know why the school no longer wanted to host the event, the report said.
The university reversed its decision again that day and agreed to host the event after a meeting with Mu Chieh Ta and Taipei Department of Cultural Affairs Deputy Commissioner Shen Hsi-hsing (沈希行), the report said.
The second reversal was attributable to pressure from Chin’s office and Mu Chieh Ta’s promises that it would manage noise levels at the concert, the report said.
Athletics department staff involved said they felt pressured by the phone calls from Chin’s office, the report said.
Deputy Minister of Education Tsai Ching-hwa (蔡清華) said the liaison section did receive a call from Chen Chih-huang on Sept. 15 asking it “to find out” why NTU had backed out of its contract with Mu Chieh Ta.
A liaison section employee then called the university in accordance with standard operating procedures and protocols, Tsai said.
During the phone call, the employee did not ask the school to host the festival, Tsai said, adding that neither he nor Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) were aware of the issue.
Chin yesterday posted on Facebook that allegations that she exerted pressure were an “exaggeration,” but that she supported cross-strait exchanges and Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) “rational attitude” to China.
Taiwan should not “continue to carry out purges, partisanship, political struggles against others and indulge in self-intoxication,” Chin wrote.
Chen Chih-huang said he “was unclear” the report’s allegations.
Additional reporting by Chen Fu-yu
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening 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) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
Taiwanese singer Jay Chou (周杰倫) plans to take to the courts of the Australian Open for the first time as a competitor in the high-stakes 1 Point Slam. The Australian Open yesterday afternoon announced the news on its official Instagram account, welcoming Chou — who celebrates his 47th birthday on Sunday — to the star-studded lineup of the tournament’s signature warm-up event. “From being the King of Mandarin Pop filling stadiums with his music to being Kato from The Green Hornet and now shifting focus to being a dedicated tennis player — welcome @jaychou to the 1 Point Slam and #AusOpen,” the
RSS