Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) yesterday urged Taiwanese academics and students to be cautious before going on trips to China, after a National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) professor was criticized for taking a group of students to China in an “academic exchange.”
Jou Jwo-huei (周卓煇), a material sciences professor, led a group of 28 students from NTHU and Shu Guang Senior Girls’ High School in Hsinchu City on a five-day trip to Tianjin, China.
The visit, which started on March 29, was advertised as an academic exchange on “light and health,” a person posting online as “Little Woman of Silicon Valley” (矽谷小婦人) wrote.
Photo from Facebook
The poster said that a friend, whose daughter attends Shu Guang High School, forwarded her a notice from the school that said students would only have to pay for airfare, while accommodation, meals, transportation and other tour expenses were paid for.
The commenter said the trip appeared to be the kind of “united front” event the Chinese government would fund and disguise as an “academic exchange” to influence Taiwanese academics and students.
“My friend’s daughter is young, yet she went on a trip to China that was likely to brainwash her, by showing the nice parts of China” to make her more susceptible to Chinese political influence, the commenter said.
Jou on Monday defended the trip, saying that students visited tourist sites in Tianjin and that schools did not provide funding for the trip, nor did they in a 2023 academic exchange.
“My research has focused on light and its effects on health for many years,” Jou said.
“This time, the exchange was with an optometry hospital in Tianjin, during which we presented papers at a forum. The high schoolers were all willing to pay their own expenses to join this trip, so they could participate in the forum to present their research,” he said.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Legislative Yuan session yesterday, Chiu said that China’s past friendliness to Taiwan does not apply to the present, and that academics and students should be cautious about trips to China.
People involved in exchanges with China should be mindful to preserve their dignity, maintain healthy and orderly cross-strait relations, and be aware of the image their event would project at home and abroad, he said.
Universities should register academic exchanges or events abroad on the Ministry of Education’s platform to protect the safety of students and faculty, he said.
Additional reporting by Lin Che-yuan
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS