Accusations of a plagiarized report sparked a denial and a war of words — along with promises to sue and defiance in the face of such threats — as politicians clashed yesterday.
Taipei City Councilor Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) said a thesis that Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) submitted while studying in a master’s program at Chung Hua University drew most of its content from a paper that was released a month earlier.
Lin, the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) nominee for the Taoyuan mayoral election in November, denied the allegation, adding that he is mulling legal action against Wang, a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Photo: Cheng Ming-hsiang, Taipei Times
Wang told a news conference that the Hsinchu Science Park Administration had penned an unpublished study titled An Evaluation of the Approval of Hsinchu Science Park Residents with the Taiwan Consumer Satisfaction Index Model in June 2008.
One month later, Lin published his thesis, An Evaluation of the Approval of Residents of a Certain Domestic Science Park with the Taiwan Consumer Satisfaction Index Model, she said.
The methodology, datasets and 88 percent of the written content, including typing errors, were identical across the two documents, Wang said, adding that original content comprised only seven of the 49 pages of Lin’s paper.
Photo: CNA
The university should rescind Lin’s degree and the Hinschu City Government should investigate whether the mayor contravened intellectual property laws, she said.
“Lin’s act of plagiarism is a breach of the academic code of conduct and also quite likely a breach of the government’s intellectual property rights,” she said. “Lin has lost all political credibility; the man should return his degree and drop out of the [Taoyuan] race.”
Lin told a separate news conference at noon at the Hsinchu City Government that “[the allegation] is old news that media reports covered two weeks ago.”
Allegations of plagiarism are rehashed leading up to nearly every election I contest and they are repeatedly debunked by my campaign and the faculty of my alma maters, he said.
“I have never plagiarized any paper while attending Chung Hua University or National Taiwan University,” he said. “I will defend my good name and I will meet with my attorneys to discuss pressing charges.”
Candidates should appeal to voters by proposing policies instead of smearing their opponents, he said.
Later yesterday, Wang said she welcomed a court battle.
“A lawsuit would be welcomed as an opportunity for a court to verify Lin’s plagiarism,” she said.
Separately, Former legislator Ko Chih-en (柯志恩), the KMT’s candidate for the Kaohsiung mayoral election, was accused of breaching ethics rules while studying education.
Ko submitted nearly identical manuscripts to two conferences in 2004, constituting self-plagiarism and contravening duplicate publication rules in academia, a post on Facebook submitted by an account named Wen Ta-jui (翁達瑞) said.
Ko denied the allegations, saying that she “will not tolerate her character being smeared.”
Ko on Monday filed a libel suit at the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office against the administrator of the Wen Ta-jui Facebook account.
Additional reporting by Ke Yu-hao
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by