The six cities and counties governed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) are uniting to refuse to adopt the Ministry of Education’s plan to revise the national high-school curriculum, which they said ran counter to regulations, customary procedures and the historical truth, the party said yesterday.
A meeting of the party’s Central Standing Committee drew up three countermeasures against the ministry’s textbook outlines that critics say are an attempt to “de-Taiwanize” the nation’s history, DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said.
Greater Kaohsiung, Greater Tainan and Yilan, Yunlin, Chiayi and Pingtung counties will not adopt the new curriculum — and the party’s first step is to join forces with academics and civic organizations to speak out against the ministry’s “illegitimate” plan and the “erroneous” historical perception it seeks to instill, and to mobilize the resources at its disposal for any protests against it, Lin said.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
He said the DPP caucus plans to pressure the ministry into rescinding the proposal in the next legislative session, which starts on Feb. 21.
“The party reached a consensus with the leaders of all six DPP-governed cities and counties to boycott the ministry’s curriculum adjustment plan, which is a result of backroom deals,” Lin said.
The ministry’s adjustments were proposed less than two years after the implementation of the current outlines, which is four years before the legally regulated interval of six years between national curriculum revisions, he said.
“The planned adjustments are set to ‘de-Taiwanize’ high-school textbooks and make them more China-oriented, which the DPP strongly opposes,” Lin said.
The ministry announced on Jan. 27 that it had approved a new curriculum for Chinese literature and social sciences that it said contained “slight adjustments” based on the Constitution. History textbooks would see the era of Tokyo’s rule referred to as the “Japanese colonial period” and China as “Mainland China.”
Dozens of civics and social studies teachers from the Civics Teachers Action Alliance (公民教師行動聯盟) yesterday rallied outside the ministry in Taipei, urging it to halt the implementation of the new curriculum planned for next year and restart the hearing process.
Chou Wei-tung (周威同), a teacher from National Taitung Girls’ Senior High School and the alliance’s convener, said the ministry had not only violated the principle of procedural justice and the spirit of deliberative democracy in its deliberations, but also failed to respect the professional opinions of grassroots teachers.
National Academy of Educational Research deputy director Tseng Shih-chieh (曾世杰) received a petition from the teachers, without making any response.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
RSS