Academics have called on the government to crack down on researchers selling their work to China, saying that most research is funded by taxpayers and should belong to the private institutions where the researchers are employed.
Those who run for leadership roles in public universities should be honest and upright, but cases such as the last presidential election at National Taiwan University (NTU) and most recently at his own university showed that this is often not the case, Liu Chih-cheng (劉志成), a chemical engineering professor at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology in Taipei, said on Wednesday.
Those who take on part-time appointments, or participate in China’s Changjiang Scholars or Thousand Talents programs might contravene the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) or Article 34 of the Act Governing the Appointment of Educators (教育人員任用條例).
Through the two programs, China aims to attract international academic talent, including from Taiwan, and this allows it to purchase Taiwanese research for a comparatively small sum, Liu said, adding that the government subsidized that research for a decade or more using taxpayers’ money.
However, as academic institutions have no authority to conduct their own investigations, the government must take responsibility and investigate cases in which academics are suspected of illicitly working in China or selling Taiwanese research there, he said.
In many cases, China buys the results of Taiwanese research programs for several million New Taiwan dollars, while those programs cost the nation several hundred million NT dollars, said Chen Ping-hei (陳炳煇), a professor at NTU’s College of Engineering.
“This is like a formidable martial artist submitting to their adversary without a fight,” Chen said. “If you want cross-strait academic exchanges, then you need to establish memoranda of understanding on a school-to-school basis.”
China has in the past few years invested heavily in attracting Taiwanese academic talent as part of its “united front” campaign, Private School Educators president Yu Jung-hui (尤榮輝) said.
“Taiwanese who take up positions in China are subject to brainwashing, and China has not slowed its infiltration of Taiwanese schools, despite the impact of COVID-19 and the backlash against Hong Kong’s national security legislation,” Yu said, adding that if the nation allowed academics to participate in Chinese programs, it would lead to a “red disaster” for the development of technology in Taiwan.
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