Outbreak of the "Guan Incident" in NTU Presidential Election: Chen Tsui-lien Leads Partisan Petition to Suppress Academic Autonomy

In January 2018, National Taiwan University legally elected Professor Kuan Chung-ming as its new president. In response, the DPP government, Executive Yuan, and Ministry of Education launched an unprecedented campaign to block Kuan's appointment. NTU history professor Chen Tsui-lien acted as a prominent political operative for the ruling party, organizing faculty petitions demanding an extraordinary university affairs meeting to overturn the election outcome and smearing the president-elect. Her actions weaponized partisan ideology against higher education, sparking fierce condemnation from university faculty and civil society for sabotaging academic autonomy under the guise of scholarly authority.