The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday commended the University of British Columbia (UBC) for “resuming its academic autonomy,” after the school said it would refer to the nation as “Taiwan,” instead of as “Taiwan (Province of China)” as it had done in an annual report.
In its Enrolment Annual Report 2019-2020 published earlier this year, the Canadian university referred to the nation as “Taiwan (Province of China)” in a table breaking down international students’ countries of citizenship.
In the report’s 2018-2019 edition, the school had referred to the nation as “Taiwan” without any parenthesized note.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
After the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Vancouver lodged a protest against the error in the latest report, the university said the reference would be corrected.
The school said the mistake was inadvertently caused by a move to a standardized computer terminology and that it has implemented a fix, according to a Chronicle Herald report yesterday.
UBC is non-partisan and “does not take stands on political issues,” media relations senior director Kurt Heinrich was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
“Moving forward, UBC will only refer to Taiwan without any additional descriptors in future reports,” Heinrich said.
He said the university had adopted International Organization for Standardization (ISO) data standards for country codes, which “use United Nations sources to define the names of countries.”
The UN considers Taiwan a Chinese province. Canada has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
“It is important to be clear that the utilization of ISO data standards is not indicative of the university taking a position regarding Taiwan,” Heinrich said.
The ministry is glad to see the university resume its academic neutrality and autonomy, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) told a news briefing in Taipei.
The ministry lauded the university for understanding the essence of the problem and its willingness to correct the inappropriate appellation, she added.
However, the error remains in the school’s published report, while the ministry has instructed the TECO in Vancouver to continue to express the nation’s stance and monitor developments, Ou said.
Chinese students at the university outnumber students of other nationalities and their numbers have been increasing over the past few years, followed by students from India and the US, the 2019-2020 report showed.
Beijing has ramped up a campaign to have foreign firms and organizations identify Taiwan as part of China, and often to directly name it as a Chinese province.
Taiwan strongly objects to this, saying that it has never been part of the People’s Republic of China and that Beijing has no authority over the nation.
In March, Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University backed down on how it refers to Taiwan on a map detailing the spread of COVID-19 after Taiwan protested its inclusion of the nation as part of China.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
AFTERMATH: The Taipei City Government said it received 39 minor incident reports including gas leaks, water leaks and outages, and a damaged traffic signal A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s northeastern coast late on Saturday, producing only two major aftershocks as of yesterday noon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The limited aftershocks contrast with last year’s major earthquake in Hualien County, as Saturday’s earthquake occurred at a greater depth in a subduction zone. Saturday’s earthquake struck at 11:05pm, with its hypocenter about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km. Shaking was felt in 17 administrative regions north of Tainan and in eastern Taiwan, reaching intensity level 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier seismic scale, the CWA said. In Hualien, the
RSS