President Lai Ching-te was in attendance for the opening ceremony of the biannual Academia Sinica academician’s meeting. Among the attendees were former Vice President Chen Chien-jen and former NTU President Kuan Chung-ming. Also in attendance were two former and current presidents of two Hong Kong universities who have faced criticism for their lack of action to protect students.
President Lai Ching-te attended the opening ceremony of Academia Sinica’s biannual academician’s meeting.
Lai Ching-te
President
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to academicians from around the world for coming to Taiwan from great distances in order to discuss the future path of our nation’s academic research and development. When there’s progress in Academia Sinica, it means there’s progress in Taiwan, so I’d like to ask all the academicians to continue providing insight to our government. Let’s work together in strengthening Taiwan’s scientific research abilities so that we can drive the country’s development.
This was Academia Sinica’s first fully in-person biannual meeting since the pandemic. With over 200 academicians from Taiwan and abroad in attendance, the meeting was also the first attended by Lai since his inauguration.
Also in attendance was former Vice President Chen Chien-jen, who has returned to academia. Former NTU President Kuan Chung-ming also attended, but only showed up after Lai had left, giving rise to speculation that Kuan did not want share a stage with Lai. And Kuan wasn’t the only controversial academician at the biannual meeting.
There was also, City University of Hong Kong’s former President Way Kuo, who was at the helm back in 2019 during the student protests over the Hong Kong extradition bill. Back then, he had been criticized for not protecting students during the protests. Joining him was current University of Hong Kong President Zhang Xiang, another Academia Sinica academician, who has also been criticized for not protecting students and for ramping up oppression. Calls for their status as academicians to be revoked have been made. During the second day of this biannual event, a code of conduct for academicians is on the agenda.
James Liao (March 20)
Academia Sinica president
When the academicians are discussing this, they’ll refer to the academician codes of conduct from other nations. We’ll discuss all the guidelines for a potential code of conduct, and then whether it passes will be decided by a vote.
Academia Sinica is the highest-level research institution in Taiwan, and academicians enjoy a prestigious role, which is why their actions are often under scrutiny.
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