Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The recent signing of a cross-strait service trade agreement, following closed-door negotiations has caused an uproar in Taiwan. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) says that if the agreement falls through, it will have a big negative impact on Taiwan’s credibility in the international community.

In making such a threat, Ma is either taking the public for fools, or he is fooling himself. Ma is in the habit of saying that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to the same country. If that is so, any cross-strait agreement must be a domestic “Chinese” affair, and in that case, what does it have to do with “credibility in the international community?”

Union of Taiwanese Teachers secretary-general Kuo Yen-lin, second right, Taiwan Association of University Professors vice president Shiu Wen-tang, third right, and others protest outside the Ministry of Education yesterday against a recent editorial in the Chinese-language United Daily News criticizing high school history textbooks for using the phrase “Japanese occupation period” when referring to the Japanese colonial era in Taiwan.
Photo: Chien Jung-feng, Taipei Times

Historians and civic groups yesterday warned about recent attempts to Sinicize the content of history textbooks in Taiwan, saying that if the Ministry of Education (MOE) compromises on the issue, students would be taught to adopt worldviews from the authoritarian era.

At separate press conferences, the groups and historians said several textbook publishers and media outlets’ call to change the term “Japan-governed period” to “Japanese occupation period” not only violates the current educational curriculum, adpproved in 2009, but also espouses a China-centric mindset.