‘USELESS’:The minister of education called the letters with China illegal when only one school was found to have signed them, but later backtracked, a union leader said

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 20, 2017
By: Lin Hsiao-yun and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Ministry of Education has come under criticism for not revealing the names of the schools it found to have signed agreements with 0Chinese institutes to censor course material.

The ministry on Friday said it concluded an investigation into universities that have signed such documents with Chinese institutions, which found that 72 of the nation’s 157 tertiary institutions have signed agreements with their Chinese counterparts since cross-strait academic exchanges began in 2005.

The documents come in a variety of formats, with some adhering to the principles of academic freedom, some promising Chinese universities that courses would not touch on political issues, and others saying that the concept of “one China, one Taiwan” would be cut from course material, the ministry said.

National Taiwan University (NTU) sociology professor Fan Yun (范雲), who launched a petition to honor academic freedom after the documents surfaced, on Saturday said that the agreements signed by the universities to censor content should be elucidated and examined.    [FULL  STORY]