DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) yesterday asked Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) five questions, urging her to state her position on the issue of high-school curriculum guideline adjustments.
“You [Hung] said that the planned adjustments to curriculum guidelines are a constitutional issue, but the process by which the decision to make the changes was made has been declared illegal in court. Do you still think it is a constitutional issue?” Chen asked. “I would say it is more like an issue of legality.”
Hung on Sunday said that the adjustments were made in accordance with the Constitution.
Chen said 60 percent of the sections on Taiwan’s history would be changed, adding: “Is it really so hard to allow students to study Taiwan’s history?”
“Do the so-called ‘values of democracy and progress’ include a refusal to communicate [with students] and lawsuits?” Chen asked, referring to Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華), who has filed lawsuits against students who broke into the Ministry of Education compound on Thursday.
Hung, as a lawmaker, proposed eliminating the budgets of the 228 Memorial Foundation and the Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) proficiency test, Chen said, adding: “I would like to know if you sincerely believe in ‘one China, de-Taiwanization?’”
Regarding the controversial arrests of the student protesters who broke into the ministry offices and the journalists who followed them, Chen asked Hung: “Do you think that, as long as you do not like someone, you can just arrest them?”
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
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