Three Taipei public elementary schools on Sunday pressed on with their plans to attend the Cross-strait Angels of Peace Exchange in Shanghai, despite mounting concerns at home that the event was part of China’s “united front” strategy.
The city’s Minzu, Minquan and Minsheng elementary schools sent a delegation of 29 students out of the 40 planned. The delegation was to be hosted by Shanghai’s Fudan University.
The program, organized by the Chinese Communist Youth League’s Young Pioneers of China and first held in 1992, has become the subject of controversy after Taiwanese media began reporting on it last month.
An image of last year’s event in the Chinese state-run People’s Daily (人民日報) showed Taiwanese children against the backdrop of the slogan “People on both sides of the Strait are one family; together they will realize the Chinese dream.”
Since then, parents from participating schools have voiced concerns that children were being enlisted to collude with China.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei Councilor Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) has criticized independent Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) for condoning the events.
“Is he allowing Beijing to teach our children how to realize the Chinese dream?” Hsu was quoted as saying.
Minzu Elementary School principal and delegation head Huang Yao-nung (黃耀農) on Sunday said that the Chinese organizers left controversial slogans and phrases out of this year’s event.
“China has shown goodwill in its choice of words,” Huang said, adding that Taiwanese and Chinese event organizers would also refrain from speaking to avoid the appearance of a political agenda.
The 11 students that dropped out of the event did so for personal reasons not related to politics, he said.
Taipei Department of Education Deputy Commissioner Tseng Tsan-chin (曾燦金) instructed that exchanges should be conducted on the basis of “equality, dignity and respect for Taiwan’s autonomy,” Huang said.
The delegation followed Tseng’s orders and the Chinese organizers had shown “sincerity” in cooperating with it, he said.
Many parents wanted their children to see Shanghai and people should not “complicate things unnecessarily,” Minsheng Elementary School principal Lee Chin-yen (李金燕) said.
The event was billed as designed to promote mutual understanding between Taiwanese and Chinese children, and participating families were asked to contribute NT$30,000 each.
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
Taiwan is planning to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based X-ray imaging to customs clearance points over the next four years to curb the smuggling of contraband, a Customs Administration official said. The official on condition of anonymity said the plan would cover meat products, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, large bundles of banknotes and certain agricultural produce. Taiwan began using AI image recognition systems in July 2021. This year, generative AI — a subset of AI which uses generative models to produce data — would be used to train AI models to produce realistic X-ray images of contraband, the official
RSS