President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has filed a defamation lawsuit against National Taiwan University professor emeritus Ho De-fen (賀德芬) and University of North Carolina at Charlotte Belk College of Business professor Hwan C. Lin (林環牆), the Presidential Office said yesterday.
Ho on Thursday last week accused Tsai of forging her diploma and falsely stating that she obtained her doctorate from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984, citing what she said was an independent investigation by Lin, but not detailing its results.
The accusations are untrue, damaged the president’s reputation and undermined her credibility, the office said yesterday.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
Lawyers Lien Yuan-lung (連元龍) and Chang Jen-chih (張人志), representing Tsai, provided documents to the Taipei District Court from numerous sources confirming the veracity of Tsai’s dissertation and doctoral degree.
Upon request by the Presidential Office, the LSE provided a copy of Tsai’s dissertation, titled “Unfair Trade Practices and Safeguard Actions”; a copy of an official notice, dated February 1984, sent to Tsai informing her that she had passed her oral defense of the dissertation; and a photocopy of Tsai’s diploma, dated March 1984, it said.
The copy of Tsai’s dissertation sent by the LSE also contained the names of both of her thesis advisers, surnamed Lazar and Elliot, it said.
The credentials sent by the LSE matched those archived in the Ministry of Education and the Presidential Office, it added.
The office said that it had contacted National Chengchi University, where Tsai landed her first job after returning to Taiwan, and received confirmation that it has three copies of Tsai’s dissertation.
This proves that Tsai completed her doctoral studies and dissertation in 1984, it said.
Tsai was only a returning academic in 1984 and held no post in the government or the Democratic Progressive Party, so there is no reason for any government agency or university to “help cover” for her in 1984, it added.
As president, Tsai must maintain social credibility, the office said, adding that such baseless accusations have crossed the line.
As Ho has requested that the judiciary become involved, legal action has been taken, the office said, adding that it hoped the results would quell such “absurd and meaningless questions.”
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS