Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) yesterday urged Taiwanese academics and students to be cautious before going on trips to China, after a National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) professor was criticized for taking a group of students to China in an “academic exchange.”
Jou Jwo-huei (周卓煇), a material sciences professor, led a group of 28 students from NTHU and Shu Guang Senior Girls’ High School in Hsinchu City on a five-day trip to Tianjin, China.
The visit, which started on March 29, was advertised as an academic exchange on “light and health,” a person posting online as “Little Woman of Silicon Valley” (矽谷小婦人) wrote.
Photo from Facebook
The poster said that a friend, whose daughter attends Shu Guang High School, forwarded her a notice from the school that said students would only have to pay for airfare, while accommodation, meals, transportation and other tour expenses were paid for.
The commenter said the trip appeared to be the kind of “united front” event the Chinese government would fund and disguise as an “academic exchange” to influence Taiwanese academics and students.
“My friend’s daughter is young, yet she went on a trip to China that was likely to brainwash her, by showing the nice parts of China” to make her more susceptible to Chinese political influence, the commenter said.
Jou on Monday defended the trip, saying that students visited tourist sites in Tianjin and that schools did not provide funding for the trip, nor did they in a 2023 academic exchange.
“My research has focused on light and its effects on health for many years,” Jou said.
“This time, the exchange was with an optometry hospital in Tianjin, during which we presented papers at a forum. The high schoolers were all willing to pay their own expenses to join this trip, so they could participate in the forum to present their research,” he said.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Legislative Yuan session yesterday, Chiu said that China’s past friendliness to Taiwan does not apply to the present, and that academics and students should be cautious about trips to China.
People involved in exchanges with China should be mindful to preserve their dignity, maintain healthy and orderly cross-strait relations, and be aware of the image their event would project at home and abroad, he said.
Universities should register academic exchanges or events abroad on the Ministry of Education’s platform to protect the safety of students and faculty, he said.
Additional reporting by Lin Che-yuan
DEFENSE: The National Security Bureau promised to expand communication and intelligence cooperation with global partners and enhance its strategic analytical skills China has not only increased military exercises and “gray zone” tactics against Taiwan this year, but also continues to recruit military personnel for espionage, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday in a report to the Legislative Yuan. The bureau submitted the report ahead of NSB Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign and National Defense Committee today. Last year, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted “Joint Sword-2024A and B” military exercises targeting Taiwan and carried out 40 combat readiness patrols, the bureau said. In addition, Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan’s airspace 3,070 times last year, up about
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese
RSS