Taiwan has hundreds, perhaps thousands, of foreign students from a wide variety of foreign countries studying at its universities. These students come, take their classes, experience the country and go away richer. But now that the Ma government seeks to get Chinese students into Taiwan universities (some with greater benefits than Taiwanese themselves), all of a sudden problems arise on the horizon. Any self-respecting Taiwanese should therefore have a lot of questions to ask why its government right hand does not seem to know what the left is doing.

First, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has seen fit to establish (at taxpayers cost of course) taskforces at the universities involved to handle potential conflict. Potential conflict? If they are disruptive, just send them home like any other foreign student who proves disruptive. Why do they need to be molly-coddled?

The MOE further says that the Chinese should show respect for the ROC flag. That's a no-brainer, except for Ma Ying-jeou's double standard. If Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou has not shown respect for the ROC flag, how can the universities be the ones that are called upon to be the policemen. When PRC Chun Yun-lin visited, Ma made a special effort to have the flag hidden, allowed himself to be addressed as Mr. Ma etc. etc. Now the MOE wants to make sure that the universities do not compromise the nation, though the President has. In one way that is good, but in another it points up how Taiwan has a weak, fluctuating president who is governed mainly by fears of offending China.

In recent basketball games where China was involved, it was the Taiwanese students who kept their right to display their nation's flag first while the referees with apparent government sanction tried to get them to not take the flag down. The MOE should not worry about its students and faculty kow-towing to Chinese students, it should worry more about the poor example and weak leadership portrayed by Ma as in his usual fashion he tries to please everyone especially China.

Source: Jerome F. Keating's writings

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