The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday traded barbs as a controversy over TPP Hsinchu mayoral candidate Ann Kao’s (高虹安) doctoral thesis rages on.
DPP caucus director Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) accused the TPP of attempting to pressure Institute for Information Industry (III) president C.H. Cho (卓政宏) by demanding that he attend a media briefing it was hosting earlier yesterday to address questions about plagiarism allegations involving Kao.
Cho told a legislative meeting on Wednesday that the institute — a government-affiliated think tank — might sue Kao for copyright breaches after an internal probe, using two software programs, found that Kao had used about 70 to 80 percent of a research paper she had coauthored for the III for her doctoral thesis at the University of Cincinnati without crediting the institute.
Photo: CNA
Not knowing how to deal with the controversy, TPP officials instead convened a press conference to pressure Cho to change his statement, Lo said.
“This amounts to the TPP setting up a ‘private court’ to force Cho to alter his statement about Kao’s thesis,” Lo said.
DPP caucus deputy secretary Wu Yu-chin (吳玉琴) said that the government regulations on research projects such as the one Kao was engaged in at the III are very clear — that a written authorization is needed to use such research materials.
Photo: CNA
“Copying 70 to 80 percent of a report is not within the scope of reasonable use,” Wu said, calling on Kao to face the public and explain questions about her thesis.
Meanwhile, TPP Legislator Andy Chiu (邱臣遠) accused III and Ministry of Economic Affairs officials of hiding when they did not appear at the party’s press conference.
“Those at the III and the economics ministry are hiding; they do not dare come out and talk. This shows how much they fear the ruling DPP and DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘),” Chiu said at the legislature.
“The DPP has reached its hands into Taiwan’s industries and academic circles. It is abusing its power — in ways far worse than the KMT [Chinese Nationalist Party] did — with the DPP demanding that the III provide personal information [about Kao] and using smear tactics in the election campaign,” he said.
“Has Taiwan become North Korea? This ‘green terror’ is not what people want,” he said.
“It is all due to Ker, who is afraid of Kao getting elected as Hsinchu mayor,” he said.
Ker had earlier slammed Kao for blasting DPP legislators for asking the III to provide information about her tenure at the think tank.
As the III is mainly funded by the economics ministry, legislators have the right to oversee its activities, Ker said.
“Voters in Hsinchu want to know if there had been any violations,” Ker said. “Kao has repeatedly lied to cover her actions, while suing others.”
“Kao has accused other parties of using cyberarmies to wage a propaganda campaign against her and vilify her,” Ker said. “She should stop hiding and explain herself to the public.”
Asked about Kao’s situation, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), chairman of the TPP, said: “It is the ruling party using all of the government’s resources to attack Kao. It is too much.”
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
RSS