The legislature’s Education and Culture Committee is reviewing a report on thawing a frozen budget for Academia Sinica. During the review session, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yeh Yuan-chih (葉元之) bemoaned an increase in travel expenses for research trips abroad that seemed to not include trips to China. There was no commensurate rise in travel expenses for trips across the Taiwan Strait, Yeh said, implying that the disparity was a result of the tense cross-strait relationship during the Democratic Progressive Party administration.
Yeh said there ought to be far more research exchanges with China in the field of history so Taiwanese researchers could access more resources to promote the values of the Republic of China (ROC).
Academia Sinica is the nation’s most exalted institution of research. It shoulders a heavy burden through its mission to advance national academics and technological development. It is vital that the institute helps facilitate the advance of understanding of technology and other fields while maintaining research conformity with international peers.
It should not feel any obligation to conduct exchanges with China. That would narrow the scope of Taiwan’s academic acumen and technology prowess, potentially putting those attributes in a high-walled, secluded Chinese garden far from the rest of the world.
In the 75 years that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has ruled China with dictatorships, research in the fields of history and literature there have relied on arbitrary notions from Marxism-Leninism and fallen into hero worship. The research methodology there is arbitrary and its resources lack veracity. As research is conducted in service of the Chinese state, truth is not the goal. The material it produces is first and foremost to prop up the CCP and flatter its officials. At best, research is a tool for solidifying state power.
Yeh’s desire to promote ROC values is undermined by his regard for historical research conducted under the CCP regime. That is about as absurd as conducting a seance to garner medical advice from ghosts.
The CCP eradicated the ROC from within China’s borders and the party denies the “values of the ROC.” How could history researchers in a liberal democracy such as Taiwan ever rely on authoritarian falsehoods in materials twisted by the CCP?
Academia Sinica should tread an international path. The institute cannot tie the nation’s academics and technological research to China — especially regarding historical research, as China lacks the conditions that allow for academic freedom.
Conducting research in countries other than China opens avenues for academics to access deeper truths about history.
When funding Academia Sinica, the voice of Taiwanese should be heard opposing the CCP’s “united front” tactics. Yeh’s hero-worship of the CCP goes too far.
Chen Chi-nung is the principal of Shuili Junior High School.
Translated by Tim Smith
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