Two Taipei city councilors yesterday accused the city government of allowing the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “united front” campaign to creep into schools, revealing that Taipei Municipal Dunhua Elementary School’s choir had recorded a song expressing nostalgia for China, which was screened during a Chinese state television channel’s Lunar New Year special.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Chien Shu-pei (簡舒培) said parents had told her that the school administration late last year informed them that a television station had invited the choir members to be cast in a music video.
However, they did not expect the music video, which was recorded on the school’s campus on Jan. 12, to feature in a TV special titled “North-South Happy Reunion, Cross-Strait Reunion Dinner — 2023 Children’s New Year Greetings” (南北大歡聚兩岸小圍爐—2023萌寶大拜年) as part of the Fujian Radio Film and TV Group’s 2023 Lunar New Year Celebration shows, she said.
Photo: CNA
The song the choir was asked to sing was We Sing the Same Song (我們同唱一首歌) — the same controversial song that Taiwanese singers Jam Hsiao (蕭敬騰) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) performed for China Central Television’s Lunar New Year Celebration concert last year, Chien said.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) at the time had said that it was a Chinese “united front” propaganda song, she said.
“Politics should stay out of school campuses,” DPP Taipei City Councilor Chen Hsien-wei (陳賢蔚) said, adding that the Chinese music video production company had provided sheet music with simplified Chinese characters on it, and children in the choir had to write traditional Chinese characters on it because they could not read it.
He asked whether the Taipei Department of Education and the school administration had neglected their duties by allowing children to become tools of the CCP’s “united front” tactics.
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) has just come into office and children in Taipei are already being used for CCP propaganda, Chien said.
The school was contacted and the video was recorded after Chiang became mayor, so it was his incompetence that allowed the CPP’s “united front” campaign to enter a school campus, she said.
The city government should set up standard operation procedures to deal with projects between China and schools in the city, she added.
Taipei Department of Education Deputy Director Chen Su-hui (陳素慧) said that when the school received the invitation from Fujian Radio Film and TV Group, it discussed the lyrics with the group and obtained consent from the children’s parents.
The television station had edited the footage afterward, so that it did not represent the school’s original intention, she said.
There are guidelines requiring that student interactions be based on academic exchanges, so the department would reiterate the guidelines, Chen said.
Separately, in response to media reports that Beijing wants to send a giant panda to Taipei Zoo, Chien said on Facebook on Monday that she was surprised Chiang is unaware of the CPP’s “united front” tactics and would be glad to accept the animal.
The CPP is using the giant panda as a political tool for its “united front” campaign, but Chiang is casually cooperating, raising concerns about his ability to deal with municipal administration and cross-strait issues, she said.
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