China News Agency, Taipei, August 12. Lin Zhijian, a candidate for mayor of Taoyuan from the Democratic Progressive Party, apologized on the 12th for the academic misconduct involved and announced his withdrawal from the election.
According to media reports such as Central News Agency, United News Network, and Zhongshi News Network, Lin Zhijian admitted "the flaws in writing" on the same day, and said that he "choose to leave the battlefield of Taoyuan mayoral election".
Lin Zhijian was elected mayor of Hsinchu in 2014, re-elected in 2018, and announced his candidacy for mayor of Taoyuan in June 2022.
During his candidacy, Lin Zhijian was accused of plagiarism in his graduation thesis at Chung Hwa University and National Taiwan University.
However, on August 9, National Taiwan University determined that Lin Zhijian's thesis was plagiarized and revoked his master's degree.
Tsai Ing-wen, who is also the chairman of the DPP, once criticized the National Taiwan University on the 10th and asked all members of the DPP to support Lin Zhijian, which caused widespread criticism in Taiwanese society.
In addition to the plagiarism incident, Lin Zhijian caused many controversies during his tenure as mayor of Hsinchu.
Especially the reconstruction project of Hsinchu City Baseball Stadium, which Lin Zhijian regards as an achievement, the project cost more than NT$1.1 billion, more than twice the original budget. Players were injured successively in several games, causing strong doubts in Taiwanese civil society, which loves baseball.
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