The Ministry of Education will not issue a formal letter of employment to the candidate in line to head National Chunghsing University before Sept. 30, the deadline for the university's authorities to submit an investigative report into plagiarism charges levelled at the candidate, a lawmaker said yesterday.
"It is certain that the Ministry of Education will put off issuing the official letter of appointment to Peng Tso-kwei (
"At the moment [the ministry] is under mounting pressure both from professors of the school and a protest letter from the publishing house in the US. Ministry officials must proceed with caution if they are to prevent any further clamor."
The uproar surrounding the presidential candidate for the university continues to simmer while the case is in the hands of school authorities, who are investigating two academic works written by Peng which have been brought into question.
Peng is an agricultural economics professor who had been expected become the school's next president.
Peng is alleged to have passed off the work of American scholars as his own on at least two occasions.
In accordance with ministry regulations, the school must first address allegations of plagiarism involving its staff before the ministry may step in.
Questioned by the Taipei Times about the current status of the investigation, school authorities declined to give a clear answer.
Wu Ming-ming (
"They will simply request the accused to answer questions orally, before sending a report to the ministry for a decision," Wu said.
The controversy centers on Peng's academic integrity and his alleged violation of copyright law. School professors argue that a plagiarist and law-breaker is ill suited to serve as president of the university.
Cornell University Press, the publisher of the 1985 book Agricultural Product Prices, one of the works in question, issued a strongly-worded protest letter on Sept. 13 against Peng's actions and accused him of borrowing liberally from the book written by two Cornell professors, William Tomek and Kenneth Robinson.
Bruce Gardner, a professor at the University of Maryland, also wrote to convey his discontent with Peng.
Four of the models appearing in Peng's journal The Impact of Trade Liberalization on Agricultural Productions and Farmers' Share in Taiwan, which won an award from the National Science Council in 1990, are alleged to have been copied from Gardner's 1975 book The Farm-Retail Price Spread in a Competitive Food Industry.
Gardner said Peng's use of his model was not the cause of the problem in itself. What triggered his discontent is that "Peng did not cite my article at any point in his paper, nor is my article included in the list of references at the end of his article," he wrote in his letter.
Wang Li-ping told the Taipei Times that as the current president's term ends on Sept. 30, lawmakers have given the education ministry two options. They say that either the term of the present president should be extended until the end of this year to allow more time for the ministry to sort out the dispute, or the ministry should assign an acting president to serve until the controversy is resolved.
FIREPOWER: On top of the torpedoes, the military would procure Kestrel II anti-tank weapons systems to replace aging license-produced M72 LAW launchers Taiwan is to receive US-made Mark 48 torpedoes and training simulators over the next three years, following delays that hampered the navy’s operational readiness, the Ministry of National Defense’s latest budget proposal showed. The navy next year would acquire four training simulator systems for the torpedoes and take receipt of 14 torpedoes in 2027 and 10 torpedoes in 2028, the ministry said in its budget for the next fiscal year. The torpedoes would almost certainly be utilized in the navy’s two upgraded Chien Lung-class submarines and the indigenously developed Hai Kun, should the attack sub successfully reach operational status. US President Donald Trump
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
ALL QUIET: The Philippine foreign secretary told senators she would not respond to questions about whether Lin Chia-lung was in the country The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday confirmed that a business delegation is visiting the Philippines, but declined to say whether Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) is part of the group, as Philippine lawmakers raised questions over Lin’s reported visit. The group is being led by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Huang Chao-chin (黃昭欽), Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association (CIECA) chairman Joseph Lyu (呂桔誠) and US-Taiwan Business Council (USTBC) vice president Lotta Danielsson, the ministry said in a statement. However, sources speaking on condition of anonymity said that Lin is leading the delegation of 70 people. Filinvest New Clark City Innovation Park
DEFENSIVE EDGE: The liaison officer would work with Taiwan on drones and military applications for other civilian-developed technologies, a source said A Pentagon unit tasked with facilitating the US military’s adoption of new technology is soon to deploy officials to dozens of friendly nations, including Taiwan, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is to send a representative to collaborate with Taiwan on drones and military applications from the semiconductor industry by the end of the year, the British daily reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “Drones will certainly be a focus, but they will also be looking at connecting to the broader civilian and dual-use ecosystem, including the tech sector,” one source was