The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should not try to influence the results of National Taiwan University’s (NTU) presidential election and should respect the university’s autonomy, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said yesterday, amid allegations of academic misconduct by NTU president-elect Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) and a conflict of interest.
“Questions raised about the electoral system for university presidents should be discussed on a systematic level. The DPP should not interfere with universities’ operations,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) told a news conference at the legislature.
The KMT accused the DPP of running counter to democratic values when it on Wednesday filed a motion over the Ministry of Education’s budget in cross-caucus negotiations, proposing that Kuan’s inauguration on Thursday next week be delayed until the controversy has been cleared up, Lee said.
.Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Under the University Act (大學法), the ministry must hire any qualified university president who was elected legally, said KMT Legislator Ko Chih-en (柯志恩), who is also a member of the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee.
As the university notified the ministry of the election results earlier this month, the ministry’s job was to ascertain that Kuan, a KMT member, is qualified and that the election was legal, Ko said.
However, it has allowed the issue to drag on, she said, accusing the ministry of inefficiency.
She also asked why the ministry has repeatedly questioned the election results after the university’s presidential election committee issued clarifications to prove that the election was legal.
The ministry’s stance on the election differs greatly from how it acted on a dispute over the election late last year of Steve Kuo (郭旭崧) as president of National Yang Ming University, she said.
When questions were raised about Kuo’s qualifications, who was an associate professor, the ministry said it respected Yang Ming’s handling of its own presidential election, she added.
Addressing DPP allegations that Kuan plagiarized a graduate student’s thesis, Ko said that the student listed Kuan as the author of a manuscript she referenced in her dissertation.
She questioned the need for Kuan to cite his student’s work as a source in a paper he later published, saying that the DPP should clarify whose work was referenced.
KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) panned the DPP for attempting to reverse the election result by threatening to decrease the university’s budget.
“The DPP should immediately take its dirty hands off [the university],” Chen said.
‘DANGEROUS GAME’: Legislative Yuan budget cuts have already become a point of discussion for Democrats and Republicans in Washington, Elbridge Colby said Taiwan’s fall to China “would be a disaster for American interests” and Taipei must raise defense spending to deter Beijing, US President Donald Trump’s pick to lead Pentagon policy, Elbridge Colby, said on Tuesday during his US Senate confirmation hearing. The nominee for US undersecretary of defense for policy told the Armed Services Committee that Washington needs to motivate Taiwan to avoid a conflict with China and that he is “profoundly disturbed” about its perceived reluctance to raise defense spending closer to 10 percent of GDP. Colby, a China hawk who also served in the Pentagon in Trump’s first team,
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
INVESTMENT WATCH: The US activity would not affect the firm’s investment in Taiwan, where 11 production lines would likely be completed this year, C.C. Wei said Investments by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in the US should not be a cause for concern, but rather seen as the moment that the company and Taiwan stepped into the global spotlight, President William Lai (賴清德) told a news conference at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday alongside TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家). Wei and US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday announced plans to invest US$100 billion in the US to build three advanced foundries, two packaging plants, and a research and development center, after Trump threatened to slap tariffs on chips made
RSS