The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus continued to question the authenticity of Minister of the Interior Liao Liao-yi’s (廖了以) masters degree from the University of San Francisco yesterday.
DPP Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) told a press conference that the US National Student Clearing House told him that Liao’s student registration with the university was valid from July 7, 1986 to July 31, 1987, so he wondered how Liao had managed to finish his studies in that short timeframe.
Chai said his investigation had shown that Liao only “went to school” for four weeks in 1986 and four in 1987, which meant he only spent eight weeks within the registration period to finish the 36 credits required for the graduate program.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
“I would love to know how he completed it,” Chai said.
Liao’s degree became an issue during a question-and-answer session at the legislature on June 2, when he said he went to graduate school at the University of San Francisco in 1986 when he was mayor of Fengyuan, Taichung County. He said he had finished graduate school by taking advantage of the four-week annual vacation available as Fengyuan mayor to “go to school” and finished the required credits within two years.
“I taught in the US for more than 20 years. A semester lasts for at least 15 weeks. It would be quite impossible for a graduate student to finish 18 credits per semester,” Chai said. “Plus, I have never heard such a program that a student would only have to show up four weeks a year and would be able to finish it in two years.”
Liao only lists the “Department of Statistics, Feng Chia University” for his educational background on the Ministry of the Interior’s Web site.
“It is our belief that the Ministry of Education recognizes diplomas from this school. Liao said his masters was not recognized [by the education ministry, so he didn’t include it on the Web site.] I think he owes the public an explanation,” DPP caucus whip Yeh Yi-ching (葉宜津) said.
Later last night, Liao issued a statement reiterating that his masters degree was authentic.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods