The Ministry of Education will not issue a formal letter of employment to the candidate in line to head National Chunghsing University before Sept. 30, the deadline for the university's authorities to submit an investigative report into plagiarism charges levelled at the candidate, a lawmaker said yesterday.
"It is certain that the Ministry of Education will put off issuing the official letter of appointment to Peng Tso-kwei (
"At the moment [the ministry] is under mounting pressure both from professors of the school and a protest letter from the publishing house in the US. Ministry officials must proceed with caution if they are to prevent any further clamor."
The uproar surrounding the presidential candidate for the university continues to simmer while the case is in the hands of school authorities, who are investigating two academic works written by Peng which have been brought into question.
Peng is an agricultural economics professor who had been expected become the school's next president.
Peng is alleged to have passed off the work of American scholars as his own on at least two occasions.
In accordance with ministry regulations, the school must first address allegations of plagiarism involving its staff before the ministry may step in.
Questioned by the Taipei Times about the current status of the investigation, school authorities declined to give a clear answer.
Wu Ming-ming (
"They will simply request the accused to answer questions orally, before sending a report to the ministry for a decision," Wu said.
The controversy centers on Peng's academic integrity and his alleged violation of copyright law. School professors argue that a plagiarist and law-breaker is ill suited to serve as president of the university.
Cornell University Press, the publisher of the 1985 book Agricultural Product Prices, one of the works in question, issued a strongly-worded protest letter on Sept. 13 against Peng's actions and accused him of borrowing liberally from the book written by two Cornell professors, William Tomek and Kenneth Robinson.
Bruce Gardner, a professor at the University of Maryland, also wrote to convey his discontent with Peng.
Four of the models appearing in Peng's journal The Impact of Trade Liberalization on Agricultural Productions and Farmers' Share in Taiwan, which won an award from the National Science Council in 1990, are alleged to have been copied from Gardner's 1975 book The Farm-Retail Price Spread in a Competitive Food Industry.
Gardner said Peng's use of his model was not the cause of the problem in itself. What triggered his discontent is that "Peng did not cite my article at any point in his paper, nor is my article included in the list of references at the end of his article," he wrote in his letter.
Wang Li-ping told the Taipei Times that as the current president's term ends on Sept. 30, lawmakers have given the education ministry two options. They say that either the term of the present president should be extended until the end of this year to allow more time for the ministry to sort out the dispute, or the ministry should assign an acting president to serve until the controversy is resolved.
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