While most Taiwanese favored allowing Chinese students to study in Taiwan, legal measures must be in place to manage their stay and protect the interests of local students, a poll released yesterday by the Taiwan Thinktank showed.
The survey showed that 54.3 percent of respondents supported allowing Chinese students to study in local colleges and universities, while 44 percent said they were against it.
A majority of the people polled, however, said the government must have strategic measures in place to minimize its impact.
The poll questioned 1,128 adults nationwide on Aug. 9 and Aug. 10.
On the issue of recognizing Chinese educational credentials, more than 54 percent of respondents opposed the measure compared with 41.6 percent who supported it.
Once Chinese students are allowed to study here, 62.8 percent of respondents said they should not be allowed to work here, while 36.3 percent said they should. Nearly 69 percent said they were against Chinese students staying here after graduation, while 29.9 percent said they supported it.
LICENSE
More than 81 percent said Chinese students should not be allowed to take national examinations to obtain licenses or certificates against 16.3 percent who said they should.
Asked whether the government should have a mechanism in place to manage Chinese students, 88.1 percent said it should, while 10.4 percent said no. While the government has proposed implementing such measures through an executive decree, 81.7 percent of those polled said the legislature should approve the measures, while 15.4 percent saw no need for legislation.
The legislature is scheduled to hold a two-week provisional session starting on Tuesday to tackle a number of contentious bills, including proposed revisions to the University Act (大學法), the Vocational School Act (專科學校法) and the Act Governing the Relations Between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) to allow local schools to accept Chinese students.
Taiwan Thinktank executive director Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said a well-thought-out mechanism must be in place to manage Chinese students and restrictions must be written into law.
The restrictions — dubbed “three limits and six noes” — were proposed by the Ministry of Education to protect the interests of Taiwanese students.
The “three limits” refer to restrictions on the number of Chinese universities that the government plans to recognize, the total number of Chinese college students who can enter Taiwan to study and the types of Chinese diplomas that can be accredited in Taiwan.
The “six noes” would prohibit Chinese students from receiving scholarships, obtaining a professional license, working and/or staying in Taiwan upon graduation, receiving extra points on examinations and taking part in civil service examinations.
Cheng said the policy must not cost local students their chances of being admitted to college or winning a scholarship.
Chinese students must also not be allowed to work in Taiwan or take national examinations to obtain licenses, she added.
Cheng also urged the government to offer educational resources to local students or relax restrictions on obtaining such resources rather than favoring their Chinese counterparts.
POLICY EVALUATION
The government must allow at least six years to evaluate the policy and map out necessary measures before increasing the number of Chinese students, she said, while urging the government to abolish or amend executive decrees allowing Chinese nationals to study here in their capacity as professionals.
At a separate setting yesterday, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) lauded the policy of allowing Chinese students to study here as a way of laying the foundation for sustainable peace across the Taiwan Strait.
Ma said the policy would help Taiwanese students better understand their Chinese counterparts at an early age and therefore help create peace across the Taiwan Strait.
“Such an opening is conducive to cross-strait peace, sharpening the competitiveness of Taiwanese students and helping local colleges and universities recruit more students,” Ma said while addressing a Buddhist summer camp at Fokuangshan monastery in Kaohsiung County. “To pursue everlasting peace in the [Taiwan] Strait, we should create chances that allow youth from the two sides to know each other at an earlier stage.”
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
COORDINATION, ASSURANCE: Separately, representatives reintroduced a bill that asks the state department to review guidelines on how the US engages with Taiwan US senators on Tuesday introduced the Taiwan travel and tourism coordination act, which they said would bolster bilateral travel and cooperation. The bill, proposed by US senators Marsha Blackburn and Brian Schatz, seeks to establish “robust security screenings for those traveling to the US from Asia, open new markets for American industry, and strengthen the economic partnership between the US and Taiwan,” they said in a statement. “Travel and tourism play a crucial role in a nation’s economic security,” but Taiwan faces “pressure and coercion from the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]” in this sector, the statement said. As Taiwan is a “vital trading
RSS