US embassy cable - 05TAIPEI3916

UNCLAS TAIPEI 003916 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT PASS AIT/WASHINGTON 
DEPT FOR EAP/TC, INR/EAP, EAP/PD 
 
FROM AIT KAOHSIUNG BRANCH OFFICE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, TW, SCUL, Domestic Politics 
SUBJECT:  National Tainan University Campus Becomes Flash 
Point in Tainan Mayoral Election 
 
Ref:  TAIPEI 3900 
 
1. On September 12 Taiwan's Ministry of Education approved 
National Tainan University's expansion plans on the 
condition that the school return two thirds of its campus 
land that is located in the heart of the city.  The Ministry 
intends to take the land in exchange for the monies needed 
by the school to open a campus outside the city.  School 
authorities complain that there is no precedent for national 
universities to return campus land for the purpose of 
funding an expansion. 
 
2.  The National Tainan University, which was founded a 
hundred years ago in Tainan City as a normal university, was 
planning to expand its current campus to additional land it 
has acquired in Chiku, Tainan County, without relinquishing 
any of its facilities in Tainan City.   The University 
conceived of the plan not as the sort of relocation now 
being forced on it by the Ministry of Education, but as an 
expansion that would add a branch campus to accommodate 
students outside the city. 
 
2. In support of National Tainan University's expansion 
plan, KMT Tainan mayoral candidate Chen Jung-sheng in 
conjunction with KMT and PFP city council caucuses, 
initiated a signature drive on September 20, urging the 
Ministry of Education to change its policy on the return of 
two-thirds of National Tainan University's city campus 
lands.  KMT Legislator Wang Yi-ting said she would ask the 
Ministry of Education to review the plan.  Wang also 
declared she would propose to boycott the education budget 
in the legislative session.  More than ten thousand Tainan 
citizens participated in the signature drive. 
 
3.  The willingness of Tainan citizens to petition stems 
from their dissatisfaction with the Executive Yuan's 
decision on the city campus issue.  They noted that 
President Chen Shuibian is a native of Tainan but his 
administration has failed to support the city and protect 
its major educational asset.  Citizens see a lack of equity 
since National Tainan University is the only national 
university that, upon making plans to expand, has been 
required by authorities to return campus lands as part of a 
"forced relocation." 
 
4.  Facing criticism from the KMT opposition, Tainan Mayor 
Hsu Tain-tsair said he has been negotiating with the central 
government authorities to preserve the school's city campus 
and that he has confidence that the school would not move 
out of Tainan City or its campus be traded for the expansion 
budget.  Local political observers say the campus issue has 
become a flash point in the upcoming mayoral election in 
Tainan (see reftel). 
 
 
THIELE 
 
KEEGAN