Awkward! Hou Youyi criticized the Democratic Progressive Party for preventing Chinese students from coming to Taiwan. The announcement of China’s “ban” was a slap in the face | Politics | Sanli News Network SETN.COM

Reporter Li Guanzhi/Reporting from Taipei

▲KMT presidential candidate Hou Youyi (data map)

Hou Youyi recently stated that he will definitely adopt an open policy when it comes to mainland China and restore cross-strait mutual trust through dialogue and exchanges, including opening up a large number of mainland tourists and mainland students, who can also find jobs in Taiwan if they have the opportunity. And criticized the Democratic Progressive Party for preventing middle school students from coming to Taiwan. However, embarrassingly, sharp-eyed netizens discovered that the reason why middle school students are currently unable to come to Taiwan has nothing to do with the Taiwan government. It is about China’s use of Chinese education in order to put pressure on cross-strait relations. The Ministry of Education issued a ban in 2020 to stop Chinese students from coming to Taiwan. This official document is also like a slap in the face to Hou Youyi.

Looking back on 2020, China suddenly announced a ban on secondary school students in April. In January of that year, it was Tsai Ing-wen who was re-elected with 8.1 million votes. The international community also expressed support for Taiwan, so Tsai Ing-wen was elected for re-election. Before May 20, China issued this ban to restrict Chinese degree students from studying in Taiwan, deliberately creating the impression that green camps cannot respond to cross-strait affairs.

At that time, the reason given in the official document of the Ministry of Education of China was that after comprehensive consideration of the current COVID-19 (Wuhan pneumonia) epidemic prevention and control and the situation of cross-Strait relations, a ban was issued on graduates of all academic levels from all over the mainland to study in Taiwan in 2020. However, the paradox is that But at the same time, it announced that mainland universities’ admission policies for Taiwan would remain unchanged. It is obvious that China unilaterally stopped Chinese students from coming to Taiwan, but continued to encourage Taiwanese students to study in China. Hou Youyi’s statement is naturally self-defeating.

▲China prohibits people from that country from studying in Taiwan (picture/reproduced from the Ministry of Education of China)

Regarding Hou Youyi’s statement, Lai Ching-te’s spokesperson Chen Shikai also recently questioned that Hou Youyi was unable to explain the possible scope of the impact and related supporting measures, but he was eager to allow middle school students to work in Taiwan, but did not understand the real reason why China banned students from coming to Taiwan. What’s even more embarrassing is that looking at the youth unemployment rate figures that China has just closed, one can’t help but wonder, “Does Hou Youyi want to help China solve the serious youth unemployment problem?”

Since the policy of opening up mainland students to Taiwan has aroused widespread doubts, Hou Youyi was forced to change his words in an interview and said that he meant that mainlanders and mainland students coming to Taiwan for employment must undergo review and recruitment, and there are quotas and evaluations. The standards will be returned to the mainland regulations under the current law. The three methods of life emphasize doing things according to existing regulations.

Chen Binhua, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of China, responded to Hou Youyi’s decision to allow mainland students to come to Taiwan. Not only did he not admit that China unilaterally banned mainland students from coming to Taiwan, he even said that as long as cross-strait relations return to the “correct track” of peaceful development, exchanges in all fields are expected to be normalized. This is something people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait would like to see. People in cross-strait circles said, “If China likes to conduct elections so much, should it also hold its own presidential election?”