Professors at National Chungshing University (NCU, 中興大學) questioned yesterday the qualifications of a candidate in line to become the school's next president, saying that a plagiarist was ill-suited for the position.
Professors allege that Peng Tso-kwei (彭作奎), a professor in the university's department of agricultural economics who has been tipped as the school's next president, has passed off work from American scholars as his own.
They say two works on agricultural economics penned by Peng bear remarkable similarities to research by William Tomek, Kenneth Robinson and Bruce Gardner, agricultural professors in the US.
"A person who does not tell the truth about his academic research is not qualified to be our president," said Wu Ming-ming (
Wu, armed with a pile of documents which he says proves his case, said that there was in fact little doubt that Peng had plagiarized the American scholars' works.
"Just looking at the two copies is sufficient enough to prove that Peng can not be a president of the school," Wu said, adding that he disapproved of the Ministry of Education's choice of Peng.
The publications in question are the 1991 book The analysis and theory of agricultural product prices and a 1990 journal piece, "The impacts of trade liberalization on agricultural production and the farmer's share in Taiwan," both of which Peng wrote.
"More than 80 percent of the content of Peng's book is similar to Agricultural product prices," Wu said, referring to the 1985 work by William Tomek and Kenneth Robinson, professors at Cornell University.
Furthermore, Wu said, Peng's book has been reprinted four times and is still available on the market, in contradiction to Peng's claim that the book was printed just once.
Wu said that Peng's journal piece, which first appeared in the Journal of Agricultural Economics in 1990, was identical to a piece called, "The farm-retail price spread in a competitive food industry," written by Bruce Gardner, professor of the agricultural and resource economics department of the University of Maryland.
"What makes Peng more contestable is that he did not even include Gardner's journal on the reference list at the end of his essay," Wu said.
In response to the accusation, Peng told the Taipei Times that he utilized the book by Tomek and Robinson as a reference while he was working on his own book. In addition, he said, three reprints of his book were made without his approval.
Regarding the journal piece, Peng said he did not consider the work to be plagiarism. "How can you accuse someone of being a plagiarist when one writes the formula: 1+1=2 in his book?" he said.
Wu told the Taipei Times that he had sent a copy of Peng's book and journal piece to the three American professors and would leave any legal action up to them.
Peng, former chairman of the Council of Agriculture, is the most likely candidate to take NCU's top post among the three candidates elected by the school's 622 faculty members.
According to University Law, the education ministry is entitled to choose the president among a proposed list of candidates chosen by the school's election committee.
Peng won 161 votes, or the second-highest number of ballots. Chen Ming-tsao (
School faculty have been protesting the education ministry's choice, saying Chen is the best candidate.
"Only we the professors know who the most suitable president should be," Wu said. "How could the MOE not respect our decision?" he asked rhetorically.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
‘INDISCRIMINATE’: The drastic changes would delay many national projects as well as undermine global confidence in Taiwan’s resolve to defend itself, the premier said The Legislative Yuan yesterday on third reading passed the central government budget for this year, cutting 6.6 percent from the Executive Yuan’s proposed expenditure — the largest in history. The budget proposal, which the Cabinet approved in August last year, set government spending at NT$3.1325 trillion (US$95.6 billion), with projected revenues of NT$3.1534 trillion — both record highs — working out to a surplus of NT$20.9 billion. On Friday last week, the opposition-led legislature voted to cut NT$93.98 billion from the budget’s general provisions. During a 20-hour continuous session from Monday until yesterday morning, they continued to slash the budgets of government agencies,
RSS