Academics called for stiffer penalties and criminal charges against professors who take unauthorized grants from China after the Ministry of Education on Thursday fined National Taiwan University (NTU) chemical engineering professor Lee Duu-jong (李篤中).
Fan Shih-ping (范世平), a National Taiwan Normal University professor of East Asia Studies, on Thursday said that Taiwan-China academic exchanges often occur in a legal gray zone, as Chinese research institutes are more often than not state affiliates with Chinese Communist Party representatives on their staff.
“Academics in the fields of law or political science are more sensitive to the implications of [working with China] than those in technological and medical fields,” he said. “As a result, the latter is susceptible to inadvertently breaking the law.”
National security agencies and prosecutors should take action against professors who have inappropriate ties to Beijing, NTU professor of electrical engineering Wu Ruey-beei (吳瑞北) said.
While a fine might have a deterrent effect in terms of reputational damage and career setback, Lee’s punishment is trivial compared with the sanctions US academics would face if they took part in China’s Thousand Talents Program, he said.
Lee can afford to pay the fine of NT$300,000; the real consequence is the disciplinary measure, which would reflect badly if he were to apply to be a national chair professor, Wu said.
Several US academics were fired for taking part in the Chinese program, and one Harvard University professor was arrested and then criminally charged for lying to investigators, he added.
University faculty evaluation boards are frustrated by their lack of authority to properly investigate or impose meaningful penalties when professors are implicated in cases involving unauthorized financial ties to Bejing, he added.
“School boards have no power to access financial information. If the implicated professor says they did not take money from China or moonlight there, the boards have to take their word for it,” Wu said.
Soochow University School of Law professor Hu Po-yen (胡博硯) said Lee’s application for research grants via the Harbin Institute of Technology while working for NTU is a serious breach of contract.
“There is a system of application and evaluation for cross-strait academic interactions, because we need equal and mutually beneficial exchanges, and we have to prevent professors from becoming tools of China’s ‘united front’ tactics,” he said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as