Seven Taiwanese scientists and technology researchers have been participating in China’s Thousand Talents Plan — an initiative launched by Beijing to attract top academics and scientists from abroad, the Ministry of Science and Technology announced on Monday.
Two have already resigned from their jobs and moved to China, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Hsu Yu-chin (許有進) said.
He said all seven had been receiving funding from his ministry for research on condition that their findings should not be transferred to any other institutions without the permission of their respective schools.
In light of their decision to work with China’s Thousand Talents Plan, their names would be passed on to the Mainland Affairs Council, Hsu said.
However, Hsu declined to name the researchers.
It is not clear whether the researchers have transferred the results of their studies to China, he said.
The ministry would seek to recover the funds it had allocated to the researchers if it is found that they have made the results of their work available to institutions in China, he added.
Hsu’s comments followed stories on Monday in the Taipei Times and its sister newspaper, the Chinese-language Liberty Times, which cited Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) as saying that the Cabinet had assigned a task force to investigate scientists and academics suspected of participating in the Thousand Talents Plan in violation of Taiwan’s laws.
A report by the council in October last year said that about 33 Taiwanese academics and scientists had been found to be participating in the Chinese program at the time.
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