TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) sent her attorneys to file a lawsuit against two academics who have been questioning the validity of her Ph.D. in Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), the Presidential Office announced Wednesday (September 4).
National Taiwan University professor emeritus Ho De-fen (賀德芬) and University of North Carolina at Charlotte assistant professor Hwan C. Lin (林環牆) claimed Tsai never passed her dissertation defense in 1984, though both Tsai and the LSE rejected the allegations.
The Presidential Office said Tsai was suing both Ho and Lin for damaging her reputation. The LSE had supplied all the relevant documents proving Tsai had written and completed her doctoral dissertation, titled “Unfair trade practices and safeguard actions,” as well as written proof that she had passed all relevant tests and examinations and a copy of her March 1984 diploma, the Presidential Office said.
National Chengchi University had also provided documents proving that when applying for a teaching position there, Tsai had supplied her doctoral dissertation. The university and the Ministry of Education had also copies of Tsai’s diploma on file which were absolutely the same as the document provided by the LSE, officials said.
The totally baseless accusations had exceeded the limits of the acceptable, so the president had decided to file a lawsuit, presidential officials said, adding that Ho had demanded a judicial investigation into the case, which she would now get.
