The Institute for Information Industry would sue Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Hsinchu mayoral candidate Ann Kao (高虹安) if she does not respond to plagiarism allegations, officials at the government-funded institute has said.
Institute president Cho Cheng-hung (卓政宏) told a legislative session that Kao contravened internal rules when she studied in a doctoral program in the US while continuing to receive her salary from the institute.
The institute earlier said that it found that that 70 to 80 percent of her doctoral thesis was copied from reports she coauthored while working at the institute without attributing the quotes.
Photo: Lin Ching-hua, Taipei Times
The institute’s lawyers have sent a letter to Kao asking for clarification of the allegations, Cho said, adding that she has seven days to reply after receiving the letter.
“So far, we have not received any response from Kao. When the seven-day period is up on Monday and she still has not replied, we will file a lawsuit,” Cho said.
Cho said Kao also contravened labor laws when she took up a part-time position at Taipei-based Servtech Co while working at the institute.
Kao did not inform her supervisors at the institute of her part time job, Cho said.
The institute is gathering evidence against her, he added.
The institute’s lawyers is also planning to send a letter to Kao’s alma mater, the University of Cincinnati, by the end of this week.
Kao from 2012 to 2014 took 500 days of paid leave during her studies, while also receiving a subsidies, Cho said.
Mirror Media on Tuesday last month reported that Kao in 2012 enrolled in a doctorate program at the US school, where she in 2018 obtained the degree, with her Taiwanese employer expecting that she would continue working for it after her return.
After obtaining her degree, she instead interviewed for a job at Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, flying to China for a meeting with its founder, Terry Gou (郭台銘), the magazine said.
Gou hired her as vice president of Foxconn Technology Group’s Industrial Big Data Office, it said.
The institute initiated a probe after the report, Cho said.
DPP Legislator Wu Yu-chin (吳玉琴) called on Kao to face the allegations.
“Copying 70 to 80 percent of a report without citations contravenes academic standards,” Wu said.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs said that reports written by institute staff are covered by intellectual property rules, and if a staff member wants to use part of a reports they have authored for their thesis or dissertation, they must ask for the institute’s consent.
Rival Hsinchu mayoral candidates yesterday urged Kao to face the allegations, saying that she has been dodging questions at campaign events.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods