Academia Sinica is to confer coveted academician membership only to distinguished academics who are Republic of China (ROC) citizens starting next year, its spokesman Kenneth Wu (伍焜玉) said yesterday.
His comment came a day after the institution announced the change to qualification rules in a news release marking the opening of the 34th Convocation of Academicians.
Candidates for becoming academicians would be required to state whether they are Republic of China citizens in writing during the application process for next year, but the rule change does not affect this year’s convocation, he said.
Photo: Yang Yuan-ting, Taipei Times
The institution is mulling the establishment of foreign and honorary academicians as separate honors from national academicians, which would require the legislature to amend the Organic Act of the Academia Sinica (中央研究院組織法), he said.
As the creation of new types of academicians would be a significant change for the institution, it would proceed cautiously with a mind to building a consensus, he added.
Academicianship is a lifelong, non-remunerated position granted to academics of Chinese descent in recognition of outstanding achievement regardless of their citizenship.
Citing the Nationality Act (國籍法), some academicians said that the nation’s citizenship laws are based on descent, which means anyone with a parent born in China before 1949 is legally a citizen of the Republic of China
“This qualifies half of China as potential candidates for academicianship,” they said, suggesting that Academia Sinica should specify that academicians must have a Republic of China passport or national identification card.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the