Latest Development of "Thesis Gate"：LSE Denies Holding Tsai's Dissertation Committee List and Report
China Times, November 29, 2921
The “Thesis Gate” involving President Tsai Ing-wen has seen new developments. Michael Richardson, a former columnist of The Observer, a publication based in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States, received a Decision notice from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) of the United Kingdom on November 26, stating that the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) “denied holding” information on Tsai’s doctoral dissertation oral examination committee members and her viva report. However, American scholar Hwan Lin indicated that the LSE legal team had provided the names of two members of the doctoral examination committee to the Ministry of Justice last year, but the University of London to the opposite refrained from disclosing this information on the grounds of "protecting personal privacy". This is outright contradictory.
Hwan Lin stated on Facebook that Richardson received a Decision notice signed by senior ICO case investigator Roger Cawthorne, stating that Richardson requested the names of the examiners who examined Tsai for her PhD and the report from her viva, but the Council of LSE denied holding the requested information. The Commissioner's decision is that, on the balance of probabilities, the LSE does not hold the requested information. The Commissioner does not require further steps.
Hwan Lin stated that at first glance, Richardson seemed suffering a loss. But in fact, the legal representative of LSE Kevin Haynes had provided two examiners' names: Michael Elliott and Leonard Leigh on December 18 last year and forwarded to the Ministry of Justice through the Taiwan Representative Office in the United Kingdom.
Are there these two examiners? Hwan Lin asserted that this amount to indirect admission that a handful of people within LSE provided false documents and colluded with Tsai Ing-wen to cover up the fraudulent doctoral degree.
Lin provided an email received on June 17, 2019, as further evidence! The email came from Clive Wilson, the Enquiry Services Manager (Academic Services) of LSE. He stated that the supervisor's copy of Tsai's thesis should have come to the LSE library, but it never did. Lin asked: Why is this? Because Tsai has never completed a qualified doctoral dissertation. Therefore, neither the Senate House Library of the University of London nor the Library of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (JALS) holds a final copy of Tsai’s dissertation, records of submission and catalogue of the dissertation.
From: https://www.chinatimes.com/realtimenews/20211129001538-260407