Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) yesterday said he is an “elegant Taiwanese,” adding that he is not afraid of being labeled by China as a “diehard Taiwan independence advocate,” after Beijing targeted him last week.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office on Wednesday last week said it had designated Cheng, along with Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) and High Prosecutors’ Office prosecutor Chen Shu-yi (陳舒怡), as “diehard Taiwan independence advocates,” and would pursue punitive measures against them.
Asked for a response in an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times), Chen said the label by Taiwan’s “bad neighbor” would not affect his commitment to educational professionalism or not shake his stance on governing according to the law.
Photo: Rachel Lin, Taipei Times
Cheng said he would continue to fulfill the responsibilities stipulated by the Fundamental Act of Education (教育基本法) to cultivate “a new generation with a strong sense of national identity, love for Taiwan and appreciation for the Republic of China [ROC], while also being deeply rooted locally and globally minded.”
“The ROC is a sovereign and independent country, different from the ROC that retreated to Taiwan under [former president] Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) regime in 1949, and it has absolutely no relation to China,” he said.
If elementary and junior-high school students were still taught of the “begonia-shaped” territorial map of the ROC — which includes China and Mongolia — it would cause confusion among students, he said.
He said that when today’s elementary and junior-high school students are asked: “Where are you from?” They answer: “I am Taiwanese.”
He added that when they are asked: “Where do you live?” They say: “I live in Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung or Hualien.”
This reflects their everyday experience and represents the most natural form of identity, he said.
While some people’s ancestors came from China, they are ROC citizens, Cheng said.
“In daily life and in the international community, we are usually referred to as Taiwanese. These distinctions should be clearly explained to children through historical and international perspectives, rather than being conflated,” he said. “What we aim for is a democratic and law-governed society, and education should help children develop a clear, stable and noncontradictory understanding.”
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