Former Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) has been accused of allowing the institution to get involved in politics when he was head of it. True, Lee has supported Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidates since 2000, but his political activities always took place outside Academia Sinica.
Academia Sinica was unaffected by Lee’s political leanings, both in terms of its administration and its research. In fact, since Lee’s presidency, the institution has been free of political influence.
Back in the authoritarian days, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government often interfered with the institution’s affairs. Researchers were under strict surveillance by the intelligence agency — commonly known as “the second HR office” — which was still operational during the term of former Academia Sinica president Wu Ta-you (吳大猷). Due to its intervention, many new employees were suddenly sacked or denied entry when they tried to return to Taiwan from overseas.
The top echelons of the KMT in the late 1970s forced the institution to establish a branch dedicated to the study of Sun Yat-sen’s (孫逸仙) “Three Principles of the People.” Academician Hsiang Wu-chung (項武忠) said that then-Academia Sinica president Hu Shih (胡適) refused then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) request to establish such an institute — but, that is a fabrication by Hsiang and is simply not true.
Some people have accused former Academia Sinica president Wong Chi-huey (翁啟惠) of aligning the institution with big business. The truth is that while Wong’s own research does have great market potential, research results are still governed by technology transfer regulations, which clearly stipulate how the profits of such research should be divided among the government, Academia Sinica and the researcher.
Though many of the institution’s biotechnology and information technology projects can be brought to the market, most basic research projects are not profitable. The institution has never reached any kind of quid pro quo deal with any corporation.
Some have made the unsubstantiated claim that the institution is unsupervised. While Academia Sinica is under the control of the Presidential Office, it must follow the Organization Act of Academia Sinica (中央研究院組織法) approved by the legislature, and its budget must follow the regulations set by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, be reviewed and approved by the legislature on an annual basis and audited by the Control Yuan’s National Audit Office.
In terms of its personnel management, during Lee’s term as president, regulations regarding promotion, renewal of employment contracts and other human resource matters were clearly set to provide strict control over its researchers’ performance and promotion.
Some people have said that the institution has been a fiasco for the past 20 years. In reality, since Lee became president in 1994, the number of research branches has grown by one-third from 21 to 32, and the number of researchers has also increased by nearly one-third, from 724 to 922. Almost all researchers are incredibly hardworking and dedicated to their work.
Chiu Hei-yuan is an adjunct research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Sociology.
Translated by Tu Yu-an
A recent report concerning a student who is suing his teacher posed the question in its headline: Does failing a student in two subjects constitute bullying? The college student in Chiayi County apparently sought NT$2 million (US$63,603) in state compensation, but a court dismissed the case. The first reaction of many might have been to ask: What has happened to students nowadays? Some say that teachers have lost their authority, while others say students are overindulged. Some even start reminiscing over the days when “whatever the teacher says goes.” However, the real issue might be overlooked if emotional reactions like that are the
When I visited Taiwan last summer, I called on the nation to use its status as a technology superpower to build superweapons. It is obvious to me as I return a year later that Taiwan is now answering that call. By 2030, Taiwan envisions a domestic drone hub, capable of producing large quantities of drones per year. The nation continues to tighten cooperation across the private sector, scientific researchers and the elected government, on creating new and innovative production avenues for defense, while efforts to become central to the “democratic supply chain” are only increasing. Anduril is seeing all of these positive
Singaporean former Prime Minister and current senior minister Lee Hsien- Loong(李顯龍) last month stood on Chinese soil and told Beijing that Singapore cooperates because of “shared interests”, not because of common “ethnic descent,” a significant statement that has upended China’s cognitive warfare tactics of “ethnic nationalism.” Along with using its military buildup and economic growth to expand its international dominance, China has long deployed ethnic politics to promote the idea that all ethnic Chinese around the world, regardless of citizenship, share a tight bond with the Chinese motherland, by which it means the regime of the People’s Republic of China (PRC)
President William Lai Ching-te’s (賴清德) May 20 second-anniversary address was not just a routine policy review; it was damage control. US President Donald Trump’s remarks — that he did not want to see anyone move toward independence and that the delivery of a major Taiwan arms package could depend on the progress of US-China relations — unsettled Taiwan’s public and created an opening for opposition parties to question whether Taiwan was being treated as a bargaining chip in Washington’s dealings with Beijing. Lai’s speech was designed to close that opening. The address covered the expected ground: sovereignty, cross-strait relations, defense spending,
RSS