Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Keelung mayoral candidate Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應) yesterday denied plagiarism accusations and said he would support a National Taipei University research ethics committee examining his doctoral thesis.
Tsai, who is a DPP legislator, described the research questions, purpose and design of his doctoral thesis at the university’s Graduate Institute of Urban Planning, saying that the empirical results obtained from his in-depth interviews were applied to his political platform for November’s mayoral election.
The university mandated use of a plagiarism checking system at the time his thesis was submitted, and he would be confident presenting his thesis again for originality, Tsai said at a news conference.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
He said that Keelung residents are aware of his long-term engagement in public service, and that they rank his performance as a legislator highly.
Keelung Mayor Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) is well recognized for his political achievements, and his “opponents will obviously do everything to crush” a rival, Tsai said.
He said he would be frank and open in the face of any attack because Keelung residents know that he is the “most capable candidate to continue Lin’s legacy.”
New Power Party Keelung city council candidate Chiang Hsing-yi (江欣怡), and the party’s Taipei city council candidates Chen Hui-min (陳志明) and Jerry Liu (劉仕傑), accused Tsai of plagiarism at a news conference on Thursday.
They said that parts of his thesis were allegedly copied from Wikipedia and Baidu, as well as Lin’s letter to a media outlet.
Upon receiving information that Tsai’s thesis allegedly contained plagiarized sections, they found in their own investigation that 25 passages were not cited, Chen said.
The three said they plan to send material to the university to support the accusation.
“How can Keelung’s citizens trust a person whose honesty is questionable?” Chiang asked.
Tsai said that he missed some citations, but not 25, and would update the thesis’ reference list.
The most problematic part of the thesis is the results section, which was found to be a “collage” of five texts, she said, adding that 2,457 out of its 7,533 words appear to be plagiarized.
Liu said that page 81 of the thesis contains 707 words that appear to be plagiarized, calling on Tsai and the university to investigate the issue.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday supported the candidates’ claims, saying that the thesis includes passages from Taiwanese academics, other students’ assignments and Chinese content farms.
Former KMT Youth League head Lu Ching-wei (呂謦煒) said that Tsai copied content from Baidu and Chinese content farm Read01, and that information cited from a French library was from the KKnews content farm.
The thesis also includes uncited paragraphs written by Tamkang University professor of China studies Chang Wu-ueh (張五岳) and other Taiwanese academics, as well as a student paper from National Quemoy University, he said.
“Keelung’s citizens have discerning eyes and want a mayor who doesn’t plagiarize,” Keelung City Councilor Sean Chang (張淵翔) said, adding that Tsai should apologize and withdraw from the election.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiao-kuang and Yang Cheng-yu
Taiwan does not exclude the possibility of having formal diplomatic relations with countries that also have formal ties with China, regardless of Beijing’s stance, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Sunday. There was speculation in 2012 that Honduras was attempting to have simultaneous diplomatic relations with Taiwan and China, an idea that then-minister of foreign affairs David Lin (林永樂) rejected. Honduras severed formal ties with Taiwan on Sunday morning after establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing. President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has taken a more practical approach to relations with like-minded countries since assuming government in 2016. Previous administrations took the
Seven senior faculty members, including the principal, of a high school in Taichung were temporarily suspended from their jobs on Friday, pending an investigation by the Taichung Education Bureau into alleged bullying and abuse that led to the suicide of a student last month. The city’s education officials were too slow to suspend those involved, the student’s father told a news conference on Wednesday, at which Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) and members of the Humanistic Education Foundation were also present. The boy had been a good student and a high achiever during elementary and junior-high, and had
ORIGIN UNKNOWN: The Leofoo Village Theme Park and Taipei Zoo have accounted for their baboons, as authorities continue a 12-day capture attempt Authorities in Taoyuan are searching for a non-native baboon, possibly of the chacma species, that has been spotted several times in the city’s Pingjhen District (平鎮) over the past 12 days, and was most recently seen in coastal Sinwu District (新屋). The baboon was first spotted near a local factory on March 10 in central Taoyuan, Jhensing Borough Warden Huang Chih-chieh (黃志杰) said. Huang said he requested the Leofoo Village Theme Park’s help after a second sighting on Saturday. In other sightings, the baboon raided fruit and vegetable gardens on private property, and has evaded one capture attempt via a tranquilizer dart. Media reported
Taiwan would have established formal relations with Argentina long ago if not for China’s interference, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Yui told US-based Spanish-language online news outlet Infobae in an interview published on Tuesday. Beijing has left behind a string of unfulfilled promises in Latin America, including pledges to build the Grand Nicaragua Canal and airports, docks, ports and industrial zones in El Salvador, he said. Meanwhile, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and other countries enjoy pragmatic and improving relations with Taiwan based on cooperation on the economy, culture, technology and science, he said. While Taiwan is “happy to live and let live,”
RSS