Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Trump signs Taiwan Assurance Act

Taipei Times

Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang speaks to reporters at a briefing in Taipei on Oct. 20.
Photo: CNA

The US$2.3 trillion government spending package that US President Donald Trump finally signed on Sunday evening incorporates the Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020, as well as money to support activities under the Global Cooperation and Training Framework initiative launched in 2015.

Breaking up China’s global cartel

Huang Tien-lin 黃天麟

After Australia pushed for a WHO probe into the source of COVID-19 at the World Health Assembly in May, China responded by adding an 80.5 percent tariff — consisting of an anti-dumping tax rate of 73.6 percent and a countervailing subsidy margin of 6.9 percent — on Australian barley imports. Beijing also banned four Australian businesses from exporting beef to China, and said that it would ban Chinese tourists from visiting Australia and students from studying there. It also added anti-dumping taxes of 107.1 to 218.1 percent on Australian wine imports.

Taiwan responsible for its isolation

Chang Kuo-tsai 張國財

In early April, Taiwan donated batches of masks to several Western countries to help them in their fight to keep the COVID-19 pandemic under control. The first batches consisted of a total of 10 million masks.

China Airlines was charged with transporting the donated masks and, of course, had the name China Airlines emblazoned on the fuselage of its aircraft, leading to people overseas unfamiliar with the situation mistakenly believing that the delivery came from China, not Taiwan, leading to frustration and resentment at home.

Education policy has blind spots

Wang Yen-huang 王延煌

The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement has released the results of the quadrennial Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).

There was not much change in the results for Taiwan, as students scored high in learning achievement, but low in learning attitude toward mathematics and science, and their sense of alienation toward mathematics and science was higher than the average.

Faced with the results, the Ministry of Education’s K-12 Education Administration simply responded that “students in high-performing countries tend to feel a sense of alienation toward learning,” without offering any further background analysis, which was a pity.

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