"Thesis plagiarism" incidents are frequently reported in Taiwan's political circles. Chen Mingtong, the head of the security department of the Taiwan authorities and former director of the "National Development Institute" of National Taiwan University, can be said to be the "key link" behind it.

Behind Chen Mingtong's so-called "peaches and plums all over the world", there is a complicated relationship between the political arena and academia, and Taiwan's "collusion between politics and academia" is exposed.

Plagiarism is frequent in Taiwan's political arena

　　Recently, Chen Mingtong's students, former Hsinchu mayor Lin Zhijian and outgoing Taoyuan mayor Zheng Wencan had their master's degrees revoked because of plagiarism.

　　Lin Zhijian was accused of plagiarism in two master's thesis published at National Taiwan University in 2017 and at Chung Hwa University in Taiwan in 2008, triggering a storm of public opinion.

On August 9 this year, the Academic Ethics Review Committee of the Academy of Social Sciences of National Taiwan University first determined that his thesis was seriously plagiarized; on August 24, the Academic Affairs Office of Chung Hwa University also announced that Lin Zhijian’s thesis was plagiarized and the circumstances were serious, and decided to revoke his master’s degree and announce the cancellation diploma.

　　In October of this year, You Zhibin, a candidate for the Taoyuan City Council, and others reported Zheng Wencan, alleging that his dissertation in the in-service master's class was suspected of plagiarism.

After comparison, the similarity of this paper is as high as 30% or more.

The relevant investigation was completed on December 2, and the National Taiwan University Academic Ethics Review Committee decided to withdraw this paper.

　　On December 6, You Zhibin broke the news again that Chen Mingtong asked students to write papers with the same information, and nine of them had the same papers, suspected of "one fish, nine meals".

　　Taiwan media further broke the news on December 8, pointing out that the 20 master’s and doctoral dissertations that Chen Mingtong supervised or served as an oral examination committee member were all split from the same survey data. Power is expensive."

In addition to celebrities and anchors, there are also staff from Taiwan's "Criminal Bureau", "Investigation Bureau", administrative agencies, and foreign affairs departments, as well as assistants to the "Green Committee" and the director of the DPP's Women's Development Department.

Chen Mingtong

　　Chen Mingtong used to travel frequently between the mainland and Taiwan as a scholar, claiming to be "the person who has traveled to the mainland the most times among political figures on the island."

After Tsai Ing-wen came to power, he first appointed Chen Mingtong as the chairman of the Taiwan Mainland Affairs Council, and then promoted him to be the head of the security department of the Taiwan authorities.

After occupying a high position, he did not resign from his teaching position.

Some well-known politicians paid homage to Chen Mingtong in order to gild their degrees. Chen Mingtong also used this to broaden his political connections and create the illusion of "the world is full of peaches and plums".

　　Earlier media reports pointed out that using the library database to search the dissertations supervised by Chen Mingtong, it can be found that from 1995 to 2021, he supervised a total of 173 doctors and masters, with an average of 6 graduate students a year, which is nearly two or three in the local area. One of the professors who has mentored the most students in the social sciences over a decade.

　　In addition to Lin Zhijian and Zheng Wencan, Chen Mingtong's students include Pingtung County Mayor Pan Meng'an, DPP chairman's special assistant Hong Yaonan, Taiwan Mainland Affairs Council vice chairman Qiu Chuizheng, Tsai Ing-wen's office director Huang Chongyan's wife Lin Bingyi and many other people from the green camp.

　　According to Taiwan media reports, when Chen Mingtong was teaching at the "National Development Institute" of National Taiwan University, the 20 dissertations he supervised were suspected of cutting the five waves of investigations of the "Asian Democracy Dynamics Survey" conducted by the "East Asian Democracy Research Center" of National Taiwan University from 2000 to 2018 into 20. a dissertation topic.

The research methods, materials, and even the entire structure of these papers are very similar, only the subject keywords of the papers have been greatly changed.

"Thesis Gate" Exposes "Political Collusion"

　　People in Taiwan's blue camp have recently called for Chen Mingtong to "quickly resign", saying that "Chen Mingtong should really know what to do."

After You Zhibin broke the news that Chen Mingtong's guidance paper was suspected of "one fish and nine meals", he even criticized Chen Mingtong for trampling on NTU and academic conscience, and using NTU's "National Development Institute" as a shortcut to the rich and powerful and a channel for promotion. The 173 students are his "Unit 173", which "became his power firewall and power moat".

　　According to the latest report from "Central News Agency" on December 9, National Taiwan University conducted a comprehensive review of the plagiarism controversy and revised its regulations. Search from outside the institute to further maintain the academic quality of the paper.

　　After the plagiarism of Lin Zhijian's thesis was exposed in July this year, a retired professor in Taiwan said in an interview that this is a typical "collusion between politics and science". They will use politicians to control resources and look forward to the opportunity to satisfy their "official addiction" in the future.

This reflects Taiwanese voters' superstitious belief in political stars and academic qualifications, as well as the gradual degeneration of academic circles.

　　The "Papers" may continue to spread, and it is not ruled out that more Taiwanese political figures will be involved.

Faced with such an absurd academic and political climate, some commentators point out that some scholars in Taiwan are the instigators of academic fraud groups, and those who should be blamed are these political scholars who hold research funds and human resources and seek to exchange interests.

There are also questioning voices on the island who say that if dishonest people are allowed to hold important positions and be responsible for Taiwan's security affairs, won't the people panic?

How much trust is left in the DPP authorities?

(You Jinyueqing, reporter from China News Agency WeChat public account)