Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party plans to make changes in textbooks in favor of a national identity disentangled from what is historically Chinese. Critics from the Nationalist party see the move as “[distorting] the base of our national and cultural development.” From AP via Washington Post:
Taiwan plans to revise school textbooks to drop references that recognize Chinese historical figures, places and artifacts as “national,” an official said Sunday.
The announcement is the latest in a series of moves by the island in the past few months to assert its sovereignty as President Chen Shui-bian’s final term in office winds down. China claims Taiwan as its own and has repeatedly threatened to attack should the island formalize its de facto independence. Beijing opposes anything that appears to give Taiwan the trappings of sovereignty. [Full Text]
