Taiwan's "de-sinicizing" moves condemned

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-01-31 19:43

BEIJING -- Taiwan is an indispensable part of China that cannot be changed by any secessionist activities or "de-sinicizing" moves, a mainland official said here Wednesday.

Taiwan authorities this month adopted a resolution that requires the island's National Palace Museum to remove all the labels that identify exhibits as from the Chinese mainland.

Meanwhile, the authorities called for the revision of history textbooks, replacing all terms such as "our country" and "mainland" with the word "China".

Yang said the mainland has noticed the moves, and believed the actual political motive was a move to "Taiwan independence" education.

"The moves have been strongly criticized by the Taiwan public," said Yang.

A resolution was adopted by Taiwan's Executive Yuan on January 17, banning the National Palace Museum from identifying its exhibits as transported from the Imperial Palace in Beijing.

Under the resolution, the task of the museum will be "the collection,study and expatiation of 'domestic and foreign antiques and art pieces'", instead of "the collection, study and expatiation of ancient Chinese art."

First opened in 1965, the National Palace Museum in Taipei houses 654,500 art works and artifacts that were shipped from Beijing (then called Beiping) to Taiwan in 1949 during nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek's retreat to the island.

Mainland scholars have condemned the change, saying the revised regulation ignores historic fact and is just another attempt to cut Taiwan's links to the mainland.

"Regulations can be changed, but the history cannot," said Liang Jinsheng, a researcher with the Palace Museum in Beijing.



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