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.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
RSS