Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) appointment of city officials came into question yesterday after a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) councilor accused the new cultural affairs commissioner of plagiarism and said the city government failed to conduct a solid background check.
Cheng Mei-hua (鄭美華), who took over as head of the Department of Cultural Affairs on Aug. 2, has denied the accusations.
Cheng assumed the post following the resignation of Hsieh Hsiao-yun (謝小醞) in July amid a dispute over an exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. She had worked at the Council for Cultural Affairs and taught at several universities.
Showing copies of several documents, KMT Taipei City Councilor Lee Ching-yuan (李慶元) accused Cheng of copying large sections of her papers that were published in local and international conferences in 2008 and 2009.
Lee alleged that 12 of the 23 pages of Cheng’s English paper titled A Communitarianism Analysis of the Contradictions of Bureaucratic Imperative Co-ordination in Taiwan, published in 2009, were copied from other works.
After these “acts of plagiarism” were exposed by academics, Chinese Culture University rejected her application to serve as an assistant professor at the school last year, Lee alleged.
“Cheng has faced harsh criticism from academics for plagiarism and her reputation has been tarnished because of these ethical violations,” Lee told a press conference. “It’s dangerous for Mayor Hau to make a hasty appointment without having a better understanding of her background.”
Lee alleged that Hau appointed Cheng through the recommendation of former KMT vice chairperson Lin Cheng-chi (林澄枝), a personal friend of Cheng.
Cheng is one of the newly appointed officials after the most recent reshuffle at the city government. Since Hau was re-elected last year, 16 of 37 top-level city officials have left his team.
Cheng dismissed the accusations and said she had filed a lawsuit against two members of the committee that reviews professor’s qualifications at Chinese Culture University who had made the accusations.
She said the two committee members tampered with the drafts of her papers to make “groundless accusations.”
“All the accusations against me of plagiarism are false, and I am a victim of academic slander,” she said.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
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