The Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange has demanded an explanation from the European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS) over a page about the foundation being ripped from brochures at a recent event promoting Chinese study in Portugal, an executive said yesterday.
Founded in 1975, the Paris-based EACS is an international association representing European academics specializing in Chinese studies. It has more than 700 members.
A foundation official who wished to remain anonymous told the Taipei Times by telephone that the foundation sent a letter to the EACS yesterday to register its “unhappiness” over the incident that took place on Tuesday last week at the opening ceremony of the 20th conference of the EACS.
She said the foundation had not been aware of the incident until it was reported by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) yesterday.
According to the Liberty Times, at the request of Xu Lin (許琳), director-general of the Hanban, the common name of the Chinese National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language at China’s Ministry of Education, page 59 of all brochures that gave information about the foundation was ripped out.
Xu has also served on China’s State Council.
All the brochures handed out to participants had the torn-out remnants of a page between page 58 and 61, with page 59 and 60 missing, the Liberty Times reported.
“We didn’t know about this until we saw the reports in the news because we did not send anyone to the conference,” the foundation official said.
She said it was the first time it had happened to the foundation during the many years it has worked with overseas institutions such as the EACS and the US-based Association of Asian Studies to promote Chinese studies as a sponsor.
This year, the foundation donated NT$650,000 to the event, she said.
“The EACS owes us an explanation. It not only hurt our foundation, but also the nation as a whole,” the foundation’s executive said.
The conference this year, titled “From the origins of Sinology to current interdisciplinary research approaches: Bridging the past and future of Chinese Studies,” was a biennial event hosted by the EACS from Tuesday to Saturday last week at Universidade do Minho and Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal.
On the sidelines of the event was an exhibition on Chinese academic studies that included more than 501 works in 561 volumes provided by the Center for Chinese Studies at the National Central Library and the foundation. The works were donated to Universidade do Minho on Friday.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Anna Kao (高安) yesterday responded to reports by the Liberty Times that questioned the ministry’s inaction over the matter.
Representative to Portugal Her Jian-gueng (何建功) was not aware of the incident when it happened, but he lodged a protest with the EACS and the universities immediately after he learned about it, Kao said.
In a press release, the Mainland Affairs Council said it felt “deep regret about and disappointed” at the incident, adding that what China has done at the EACS conference has had a harmful effect on cross-strait relations.
The council urged China to show respect and take a pragmatic view of Taiwan’s participation in activities in the international community.
National Central Library director-general Tseng Shu-hsien (曾淑賢) yesterday said that EACS president Roger Greatrex had come to the exhibition site to apologize to the foundation after the incident.
After Chinese officials showed their displeasure at the page about the foundation in the brochure, staff from the Universidade do Minho tore it from all the brochures without taking the matter to the EACS first, Tseng said.
At the opening ceremony, several EACS officials had spoken out against the Chinese Hanban and the Universidade do Minho, Tseng said.
DEATH THREAT: A MAC official said that it has urged Beijing to avoid creating barriers that would impede exchanges across the Strait, but it continues to do so People should avoid unnecessary travel to China after Beijing issued 22 guidelines allowing its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death “Taiwan independence separatists,” the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday as it raised its travel alert for China, including Hong Kong and Macau, to “orange.” The guidelines published last week “severely threaten the personal safety of Taiwanese traveling to China, Hong Kong and Macau,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference in Taipei. “Following a comprehensive assessment, the government considers it necessary to elevate the travel alert to orange from yellow,” Liang said. Beijing has
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday said that the Chinese Communist Party was planning and implementing “major” reforms, ahead of a political conclave that is expected to put economic recovery high on the agenda. Chinese policymakers have struggled to reignite growth since late 2022, when restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted. The world’s second-largest economy is beset by a debt crisis in the property sector, persistently low consumption and high unemployment among young people. Policymakers “are planning and implementing major measures to further deepen reform in a comprehensive manner,” Xi said in a speech at the Great Hall
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
SOLUTIONS NEEDED: Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers due to population decline, the minister of economic affairs said in Washington President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration is considering a plan to import labor to deal with an impending shortage of engineers and other highly skilled workers, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said in Washington on Tuesday. Kuo was leading a delegation attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit. Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers for high-end manufacturing jobs by 2040, he said. Ministry of Economic Affairs officials are still calculating the precise number of workers that are needed, as it works on loosening immigration restrictions and creating incentives, Kuo said. Taiwanese firms operating factories in the US and other countries would