China’s customs administration recently confiscated three Taiwan-produced textbooks because maps in them were “problematic” and violated the “one China” principle.
A video released on Chinese app Wechat by China’s General Administration of Customs on Sunday showed that Fuzhou’s customs office had confiscated three Taiwanese high-school textbooks on Taiwan history and geography.
In a video, a voiceover said the textbooks wrongly called “our country’s Taiwan province as a country,” providing an incorrect description about the names and sovereignty of Diaoyu Island (釣魚島) and its surrounding islands, Aksai Chin and South Tibet (the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh).
Screenshot from a video released by China Customs
The video voiceover also claimed that the textbooks omitted the “Nanhai Duanxuxian” (南海斷續線), also called the eleven-dash line, a set of line segments on maps marking a contested area in the South China Sea.
The Chinese-language United Daily News today reported that the textbooks involved were published by Han Lin Publishing Co (翰林出版) and were mailed by Chunghwa Post.
The Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said that China has tightened its censorship of printed works, especially those involving national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
China has been trying to belittle Taiwan’s sovereignty, even when it comes to education and cultural exchange, SEF said.
China is not a free and democratic country and is completely different from Taiwan, especially when it comes to freedom of speech, it added.
Taiwanese should pay attention to their safety and rights during exchanges across the Strait, it said.
Asked whether teaching materials used by three Taiwan schools in Shanghai, Dongguan and Kunshan were affected by the incident, the SEF said some parts of the schools’ programs were not taught in China and students would come back to Taiwan to take classes during semester breaks, as Chinese authorities have been censoring Taiwan textbooks for years.
It is their hope that Taiwan schools in China can use Taiwanese teaching materials, the SEF said.
There were 5,570 students enrolled in the three Taiwan schools in China in the first semester this academic year, the SEF said.
In March, Radio Free Asia reported a Hong Kong news outlet’s story that textbooks belonging to a Hong Kong student containing maps that were regarded as problematic were torn apart by China’s custom officers in Shenzhen when the student crossed the border.
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