Former presidential office adviser Wu Li-pei (吳澧培), political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) and several National Taiwan University (NTU) academics and alumni have filed a complaint with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office against NTU president-elect Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) over allegations of forgery and other charges.
The complaint was filed by Wu and Peng’s lawyers — Chan Chin-chien (詹晉鑒) and Chiu Yi-feng (邱一峰) — accompanied by Taiwan Solidarity Union member Hsiao Ya-tan (蕭亞譚) and other university alumni.
Despite being embroiled in controversy over plagiarism, Kuan was chosen by the NTU election committee in January to succeed Yang Pan-chyr (楊泮池) as university president.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
However, during the selection process, Kuan did not disclose that he was an independent director at Taiwan Mobile Co.
Local media recently reported that Kuan had held lecturer and adjunct professor jobs at several universities in China, while serving as a minister in Taiwan.
The lawyers urged prosecutors to investigate the forgery and other charges, saying Kuan should have been disqualified from the university’s election process as he did not disclose his role at Taiwan Mobile.
The group also asked prosecutors to investigate key members of the NTU election committee, including Kuo Tei-wei (郭大維), Huang Yun-ju (黃韻如) and Chen Wei-cho (陳維昭), accusing them of gaining undue benefit by electing Kuan to the position and deliberately overlooking his legal violations.
“We urge the NTU not to use ‘university autonomy’ to shield their real purpose of colluding to protect Kuan and seize the president’s office. We ask the NTU to address these transgressions and punish those who engaged in fraud during the election process, and to investigate violations of the law by Kuan,” Chan said.
Kuan was responsible for the NTU’s involvement in these controversies, Hsiao said, adding that Kuan was holding the university hostage.
A number of NTU academics have also called to disqualify Kuan from being able to assume office, saying that since 2014 he has been listed as an adjunct professor at Xiamen University in China’s Fujian Province, while serving as a minister from 2013 to 2015 under the KMT administration.
They said that Kuan was also a lecturer at three Chinese universities from 2005 to 2007, while he was a director at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Economics from 2001 to 2007.
They accused Kuan of breaching provisions under the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), the Civil Servant Work Act (公務員服務法) and the Act Governing the Relations Between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例).
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,