Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Bilingual educators need support

Tao Yi-che 陶以哲

At the end of last month, the Cabinet’s draft act for the establishment of a “bilingual national development center” was set aside due to a lack of consensus in a preliminary legislative review. On Tuesday last week, the Taipei Department of Education said that more time was needed to reach the 2026 coverage target of bilingual teachers in the capital’s schools.

Taiwan’s bilingual policies face many challenges.

Bilingual education is an international trend and is nothing new in other countries. Spain and Indonesia have been running bilingual curriculums for many years and their teaching goes well beyond “classroom English.” The results of their approaches for bilingual learning are backed up by scientific research.

Sensitivity to racial discrimination

Hsu Chih-ming 許志明

A class in Taichung Municipal Taichung First Senior High School late last month drew a lot of criticism for naming a booth at the school fair “Hsi Huan Na” (烯環鈉) — which sounded like “indigenous bastard” (死番仔) in Taiwanese. A legislator subsequently revealed that an indigenous student at the school was bullied by his peers in a chatroom after the case broke out.

Racial discrimination continues to take place in Taiwan, and the school incident seemingly reflects a culture of complicity that allows it to happen repeatedly.

Opposition candidates blind to CCP

Taipei Times Editorials

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate hopeful Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) has a message of assurance for voters concerned about the prospect of war in the Taiwan Strait: If he becomes president, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will not invade, because he does not advocate for Taiwanese independence.

Gou’s advisers have apparently impressed upon him that the issue of Taiwanese independence is “too provocative” in the current tense environment. Despite that the government has never advocated for independence, Gou’s assurances would be welcomed by the more credulous members of the electorate, especially as he maintains that the economy is the most pressing issue at hand.

China’s anti-spy law a threat to world

Taipei Times Editorials

Recent amendments expanding the scope of Beijing’s counterespionage law have raised concerns about the possible dangers of living and conducting business in China. The changes extend the reach of the law, which has long been used to suppress internal dissent, to foreign citizens and companies, with an eye on Taiwan in particular.

The amendments, which are to take effect on July 1, involve 71 articles defining the targets of espionage, from state secrets and intelligence to any “documents, data, materials, and articles related to national security and interests.” Any “network attacks, intrusions, obstructions, control, or disruptions targeting state organs, units involved with secrets, or critical information infrastructure” would also be considered spying.

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