As clashes between Hong Kong police and pro-democracy protesters intensify, the Ministry of Education said that it is helping Taiwanese students studying in Hong Kong to return home, adding that 528 had made the trip as of 4:30pm yesterday.
The ministry has established an interagency task force and has begun contacting students in Hong Kong, pledging assistance if they need it, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said.
There are an estimated 1,021 Taiwanese students in Hong Kong, the ministry said.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Personnel at the ministry’s Hong Kong branch on Wednesday night concluded talks with China Airlines (中華航空) about seating for returning students, it said.
However, most of those who returned yesterday bought their own tickets, it said, adding that if they need help, they can contact student associations in Taiwan or the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Hong Kong.
The ministry has also arranged for universities in Taiwan to offer sit-ins on classes or credit courses so students planning to return to Hong Kong could keep up with their studies.
Photo: CNA / Ministry of Education
Pan pledged the ministry’s assistance should students want to continue their studies in Taiwan, or to segue into the next level of education in Taiwan.
National Chiao Tung University said it welcomed students resuming their studies in Taiwan and has a proposal to facilitate transfers from Hong Kong universities.
National Dong Hwa University said it was willing to waive tuition and boarding costs for returning students and would prepare a special project for transferring students.
National Taiwan University (NTU) has called on its exchange students in Hong Kong to return to Taiwan as soon as possible and said it would help with completing credits and finalizing grades.
NTU has agreed to requests from its sister schools — the University of California, the University of Southampton and the Grenoble Institute of Political Studies, which asked it to take their students who were planning to study in Hong Kong next semester, it said in a statement.
NTU is also willing to help other sister schools if they have similar requests, it said.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) has instructed branch offices of the foreign ministry to assist the education ministry and the Mainland Affairs Council to bring Taiwanese students home, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said in a separate statement.
Its offices would “do whatever possible and whatever they must” to ensure the safety of Taiwanese students in Hong Kong, she said.
It was saddening to see Hong Kong police enter campuses to crack down on students, she said, citing President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) call on Wednesday for the Hong Kong government not to “decorate the faces of Beijing authorities” with the blood of Hong Kongers.
Standing on the front line of resistance against Beijing’s aggressive expansionism, Taiwan cherishes its hard-won democracy, Ou said.
The nation also sincerely calls on the international community to support Hong Kong, and defend democracy, freedom and human rights, she said.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS