AFP, Taipei :
Taiwan has banned its senior officials from studying in China for “national security” reasons in the latest dispute overshadowing improved ties with China, an official said Wednesday.
The interior ministry’s administrative order is effective from Thursday.
“The new measures have been adopted due to national security considerations,” an official from the National Immigration Agency told AFP.
“We’re worried that confidential information available to high-level government officials might be leaked as they write their theses and research papers,” he said on condition of anonymity.
Local media said dozens of people may be forced to suspend academic programmes on the mainland.
Relations between China and Taiwan have improved markedly since President Ma Ying-jeou came to power in Taipei in 2008, but have recently hit turbulence.
The Global Times, a newspaper controlled by the Chinese communist party, recently accused Taiwanese intelligence authorities of trying to recruit Chinese students studying on the island to spy on the mainland.
It said Chinese authorities had uncovered more than 40 such cases in 15 provinces, charges denied by the Taiwanese authorities.
Fan Liqing, spokeswoman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said the moves by Taiwan intelligence authorities “have seriously harmed the safety and health of young students and gravely disturbed the educational cooperative exchanges between the two sides”.
Taiwan has banned its senior officials from studying in China for “national security” reasons in the latest dispute overshadowing improved ties with China, an official said Wednesday.
The interior ministry’s administrative order is effective from Thursday.
“The new measures have been adopted due to national security considerations,” an official from the National Immigration Agency told AFP.
“We’re worried that confidential information available to high-level government officials might be leaked as they write their theses and research papers,” he said on condition of anonymity.
Local media said dozens of people may be forced to suspend academic programmes on the mainland.
Relations between China and Taiwan have improved markedly since President Ma Ying-jeou came to power in Taipei in 2008, but have recently hit turbulence.
The Global Times, a newspaper controlled by the Chinese communist party, recently accused Taiwanese intelligence authorities of trying to recruit Chinese students studying on the island to spy on the mainland.
It said Chinese authorities had uncovered more than 40 such cases in 15 provinces, charges denied by the Taiwanese authorities.
Fan Liqing, spokeswoman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said the moves by Taiwan intelligence authorities “have seriously harmed the safety and health of young students and gravely disturbed the educational cooperative exchanges between the two sides”.
