National Central University associate professor of Earth sciences Lin Tien-shun (林殿順) on Friday sent a letter of complaint to the Australia-based Global Carbon Capture Storage Institute, after it changed references to Taiwan to “Chinese Taipei” in a 2003 paper of his.
The paper, titled “Cenozoic stratigraphy and subsidence history of the South China Sea Margin in the Taiwan region,” was published in the journal Basin Research in 2003 and was cited 358 times as of yesterday. Lin is the paper’s lead author, in collaboration with two academics from the University of Oxford.
The English-language paper he submitted uses Taiwan as the nation’s name, but those references were changed to “Chinese Taipei,” while “Taiwan Strait” was changed to “Chinese Taipei Strait” on the institute’s Web site, Lin wrote on Facebook on Friday.
Photo: Screen grab from Lin Tien-shun’s Facebook page
He has written to the institute’s chairman of the board, Claude Mandil, to express his strong protest against its political interference in academic research, Lin said.
“These changes are ridiculous, unfair and unacceptable to Taiwanese. I request that you replace ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan,’ as I originally wrote,” Lin wrote in the letter.
“I have been leading the Taiwan carbon storage project for years and visited your institute in Australia a few years ago. One of your former directors also visited Taiwan to exchange ideas on carbon storage,” Lin wrote.
Photo: Screen grab from Lin Tien-shun’s Facebook page
“If the incorrect and inappropriate references are not removed, we will consider stopping exchanges with your institution,” he wrote.
As of press time last night, Lin had not responded to questions from the Taipei Times about whether the institute had replied, but the institute’s link to the paper was invalid yesterday.
The nation should be referred to as “Taiwan,” “Taiwan, ROC” or “the Republic of China” in research funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, ministry guidelines say.
Academics must request a change of name and inform the ministry’s corresponding agency if they find international journals or conference organizers using incorrect names in reference to the nation in papers, or the papers in question would not be counted as part of their five-year research work when applying for funding, the guidelines say.
The guidelines do not apply to Lin’s case, because the nation’s was correctly named in the original paper, the ministry said.
It called on researchers to file an immediate request for such names to be changed if they encounter similar situations.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is aware that Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong has weakened any possible sentiment for a “one country, two systems” arrangement for Taiwan, and has instructed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) politburo member Wang Huning (王滬寧) to develop new ways of defining cross-strait relations, Japanese news magazine Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday. A former professor of international politics at Fu Dan University, Wang is expected to develop a dialogue that could serve as the foundation for cross-strait unification, and Xi plans to use the framework to support a fourth term as president, Nikkei Asia quoted an anonymous source
LUCKY DATE: The man picked the 10th ‘Super Red Envelope’ in a lottery store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli because he broke up with his girlfriend on Jan. 10 A man who recently broke up with his girlfriend won a NT$1 million (US$32,929) prize in the “NT$20 million Super Red Envelope” lottery after picking a card based on the date of their breakup, Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The man, in his 20s, bought the 10th ticket at a lottery store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢), because he broke up with his girlfriend on Jan. 10, the store owner told the lottery company. The “Super Red Envelope” lottery was a limited offering by the company during the Lunar New Year holiday, which ended yesterday. The cards, which cost NT$2,000 each, came with
TOURISM BOOST: The transportation system could help attract more visitors to the area, as the line is to connect multiple cultural sites, a city councilor said Residents in New Taipei City’s Ankeng District (安坑) said the local light rail system might have a positive influence, but raised questions about its practicality. The Ankeng light rail system, which is to commence operations after the Lunar New Year holiday, would cut travel time for commuters from Ankeng to downtown Taipei or New Taipei City by 15 to 20 minutes, the city government said. According to the initial plan, there would be one train every 15 minutes during peak time and additional interval trains would run between the densely populated Ankang Station (安康) and Shisizhang Station (十 四張). To encourage people to
CHAMPION TREES: The team used light detection and ranging imaging to locate the tree, and found that it measured a height of 84.1m and had a girth of 8.5m A team committed to finding the tallest trees in the nation yesterday said that an 84.1m tall Taiwania cryptomerioides tree had been named the tallest tree in Taiwan and East Asia. The Taiwan Champion Trees, a team consisting of researchers from the Council of Agriculture’s Taiwan Forestry Research Institute and National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), in June last year used light detection and ranging (LiDAR) imaging to find the giant tree, numbered 55214, upstream of the Daan River (大安溪). A 20-member expedition team led by Rebecca Hsu (徐嘉君), an assistant researcher at the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, set out to find the