Google search revealed Andrew Yang's plagiarism: whistleblower
Lin Pei-yi, Shu Tzu-rong, Chu Chen-kai and Charlie Storrar 2013-08-09 11:51
Plagiarized passages are highlighted in Yang's book Ready for the D-Day. (Photo/Chang Keye)
The plagiarism scandal that prompted Taiwan's defense minister, Andrew Yang, to step down on Tuesday after only six days in the job, was uncovered by chance with the help of Google searches, according to the person who first accused Yang of using someone else's work in a book, who also denied that a conspiracy or factional infighting in the military was to blame for Yang's resignation.
Chu Cheng-chi, the executive director of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party's Taipei City Chapter, said he passed his suspicions to the local Next magazine after discovering Yang may have plagiarized material for a chapter in a book, Ready for the D-Day, published under his name in 2007. Next, a magazine with a reputation for breaking scandals involving politicians and celebrities, was set to run a piece on the allegations on Wednesday. Yang preempted the publication and announced his resignation on Tuesday evening.
Chu said the plagiarism was discovered using the internet search engine Google and had nothing to do with a conspiracy or conflict within the military based on opposition to Yang's appointment — formerly deputy defense minister for four years, Yang comes from a civilian academic background and had intended to introduce reforms to the country's armed forces following the death, apparently caused by institutionalized bullying, of Corporal Hung Chung-chiu, the affair that prompted the resignation of Yang's predecessor Kao Hua-chu.
"It is very rare for Taiwan to have a civilian defense minister like Andrew Yang, but it is also too bad that he did this," said Chu, who had been criticized for placing his party's desire to make the Ma Ying-jeou administration look bad ahead of the good of the country, as Yang had been widely hailed as the right man for the job at a difficult time for the nation's military. Chu claimed he also agonized over whether to make his findings public, but felt the revelation would prove even more damaging to the country if it came as the minister was implementing his reforms. He therefore decided to bring the issue to light at the earliest possible opportunity.
As his job also involves research on cross-straight policy, Chu decided to read Ready for the D-Day as soon as he learned that Yang had become Taiwan's first defense minister from a non-military background.
Reading the book, Chu's suspicions were triggered when he came across a chapter which contained a large number of Chinese words and terms which are commonly used in mainland China but not in Taiwan, such as a different way of expressing the word "information." He also noted by contrast that Yang's introduction to the book was written in language that would be familiar to Taiwanese readers. He selected a sentence he considered dubious and pasted it into Google.
The passage in question was found to have been originally part of a thesis written in English by Richard Fisher, a specialist in Asian military affairs. That work had first been translated into Simplified Chinese and then the piece culled for Yang's book had been converted into the traditional characters used in Taiwan, but without changing the tell-tale signs of different language use across the Taiwan Strait.
Kuan Bi-ling, a DPP legislator, said she had been alerted to the plagiarism allegations but had held back rather than reveal them as she felt Yang was the most capable candidate for the position of defense minister and should be given a chance.
"It is even more remarkable that President Ma Ying-jeou remained silent on the matter rather than protect the minister he appointed," Kuan said.
