Kaohsiung City Councilor Jane Lee (李眉蓁), Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) mayoral by-election candidate, plagiarized 96 percent her master’s thesis, Chinese-language Mirror Media magazine reported yesterday, causing uproar in political and educational circles.
While a previous report claimed that part of Lee’s thesis, An Analysis on Trade between Taiwan and China, was taken from work by Overseas Community Affairs Council Minister Tung Chen-yuan (童振源), Mirror Media claimed that 96 percent of the thesis was plagiarized.
The report was a “blatant act of political manipulation,” Lee said, adding that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) deserves public scrutiny and criticism.
Photo: CNA
Lee’s comments referred to doubts voiced about President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) doctoral thesis ahead of the Jan. 11 presidential election.
Kaohsiung City Councilor Wu Yi-jheng (吳益政), the Taiwan People’s Party candidate, said that National Sun Yat-sen University, where Lee obtained her degree, should conduct an investigation.
The city government should then thoroughly debate the incident after the by-election, Wu said.
Former vice premier and DPP candidate Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said that Lee should offer some clarification on the matter to uphold the university’s reputation.
The public is concerned about Lee’s integrity, Chen’s campaign team said, adding that Lee’s responses had provided no answers.
Despite the revelation, the DPP would gladly turn the focus back to the by-election, even though Lee’s platform resembles that of former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), it said.
An investigation is under way and outside experts are conducting a four-month review, the university said yesterday.
If the allegations prove to be true, the university would revoke Lee’s degree, it added.
Digital comparison of theses had not been adopted when Lee graduated, leading to this quandary, university president Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) told the Central News Agency by telephone yesterday.
Last semester, the university administration adopted measures to prevent similar incidents — amending the school’s regulations for managing theses, prohibiting paper copies and no longer allowing graduates the option of making their electronic thesis inaccessible to the public.
DPP spokeswoman Yen Juo-fang (顏若芳) called on KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) comment on the issue.
A comment by KMT Cultural and Communications Committee deputy director-general Huang Tzu-che (黃子哲) that “if she [Lee] plagiarized, she would have plagiarized the entire thesis, not just four pages” showed that the party might have been previously aware of the accusations, Yen said.
KMT deputy secretary-general Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) said that the party welcomed the investigation, but called on the public to adopt the same standards across the board.
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
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
RSS