Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: 古海岸遗址/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 4.0
THE TAIWANESE GOVERNMENT has placed two Chinese universities on a blacklist, preventing them from conducting academic exchanges. These universities are the Jinan University in Guangzhou, which has an enrollment of 1,500 Taiwanese nationals, and Huaqiao University in Xiamen, which has an enrollment of 600 Taiwanese nationals.
The ban is on the basis that the two universities are said to operate under Beijing’s United Front Work Department, directly under the political warfare division, according to reports by national security. The ban will apply to high schools, colleges, universities, and vocational schools. Private institutions that do not operate under the Ministry of Education which conduct exchanges with the Jinan University and Huaqiao University will lose subsidies that the Ministry of Education provides to them. High schools, colleges, universities, and vocational schools are already forbidden from conducting academic exchanges with educational institutions run by China’s Ministry of National Defense.
Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao has framed the issue as that the two institutions do not, in fact, serve as educational institutions even as Taiwanese have the constitutional right to an education. Cheng also stated that education providers are obligated to be aware of national security considerations.
That being said, the ban applies to administrations of educational institutions and not students themselves. Taiwanese students are still free to apply to the Jinan University and Huaqiao University on the basis of political freedoms.
Reportedly, it is very easy for Taiwanese to apply to these universities. The two universities reportedly place priority on recruiting Taiwanese high school graduates.
In comments at the 2025 National Conference for the University Presidents of Taiwan, Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te echoed these claims, emphasizing United Front efforts by the CCP to win over Taiwanese young people by virtue of efforts targeting college students.
The Chinese government is no doubt aware of the fact that Taiwanese young people overwhelmingly identify as Taiwanese and not Chinese, as attested to by poll after poll. Taiwanese identity is on the rise and Chinese identity is on the decline, while mutual Chinese and Taiwanese identity is also on the decline.
The Xiamen campus of Huaqiao University. Photo credit: BreakdownDiode/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 3.0
Consequently, China has stepped up efforts to win over young people in past years. This has sometimes taken the form of efforts to win over Taiwanese start-up founders and young entrepreneurs, through incentives and subsidies. There has been less attention in past years to Chinese educational institutions seeking to win over Taiwanese students, however.
At a time that the KMT has sought to call for the resumption of academic exchanges between Taiwan and China, the Lai administration is likely hoping to set a baseline for exchanges. In other words, the Lai administration is likely hoping to set the grounds for some exchanges to be deemed legitimate and others to be deemed illegitimate, knowing that the Chinese government would seek to use such exchanges as a means of influencing Taiwan anyway.
The Chinese government has sought to depict the Lai administration as unwilling to conduct educational exchanges with China. In reality, however, it was the Chinese government that banned Chinese students from studying in Taiwan. As such, the number of Chinese students in Taiwan has dwindled in past years, with China ignoring requests by the Taiwanese government to discuss the issue.
In spite of the Lai administration stating that it hopes for the resumption of group tours from China, the Chinese government still aims to pin the blame on the Lai administration as being unwilling to allow for the resumption of exchanges. Similarly, the Lai administration has emphasized that the resumption of group tours should occur on the basis of mutual respect and parity.
It is unclear as to whether the Lai administration intends to similarly negotiate for the return of Chinese students to Taiwan and as to whether its present moves are aimed at setting preconditions for such a resumption.