Taiwan academics told to identify as Chinese in journal (original) (raw)

One of the world’s largest academic publishers has been accused of bowing to Beijing after Taiwanese scientists had their papers rejected for refusing to be called Chinese.

Academics have revealed that the editors of a medical journal published by Springer Nature told them to add the word “China” after “Taiwan” in articles or be barred from publication.

The issue has prompted the Taipei Representative Office in the UK to write to Springer’s London headquarters, urging it to “rectify” its editorial policy regarding Taiwan.

In correspondence seen by The Times, Taiwanese officials also complained that authors were incorrectly identified as being from “Taipei, China” and “Tainan, China” on its website, despite the British government referring to Taiwan without Chinese affiliation.

It is understood that ministers have been considering plans to formally recognise Taiwan within the next five years.

President Xi’s Chinese Communist Party is pursuing the annexation of Taiwan, which it has never ruled and operates as a democratic nation. President Tsai of Taiwan has openly rejected Mr Xi’s claim that her country is part of China.

President Tsai said in a speech today to mark Taiwan’s national day that the world was becoming concerned about the “expanding hegemony” of China. She also appealed to President Xi to deescalate military tensions following months of Beijing ramping up fighter jet incursions into the island’s air space.

President Tsai also referenced a recent speech made by President Xi to the United Nations that she said gave the Taiwanese some hope. “I am also aware that the leader across the Strait has publicly stated in a video message to the United Nations General Assembly that China will never seek hegemony, expansion, or a sphere of influence... we hope this is the beginning of genuine change,” she said. “We are committed to upholding cross-strait stability, but this is not something Taiwan can shoulder alone - it is the joint responsibility of both sides.”

In recent years an emboldened Beijing has increasingly tried to undermine Taiwanese independence. One method had been to pressure international companies to change their official affiliations with the country, labelling it as part of China.

The office said: “We have received many complaints from Taiwanese medical professionals that when they submitted a manuscript to the Eye and Vision journal published by Springer Nature, they were told that editorial policy states unless they add ‘China’ after ‘Taiwan’ with regard to their institutional affiliation, the journal would refuse to publish it.”

One Taiwanese doctor, Jo-Hsuan Wu, said that editors at the Chinese-owned Eye and Vision journal wrote to her warning that the change was required under its editorial policies.

Springer Nature claimed that under its editorial policy, authors alone could choose their affiliations, but said that it was “unable to enforce” the same standard on journals it did not own. It considered Eye and Vision, owned by the Wenzhou Medical University in China, as a “co-publisher” that operated under separate editorial guidelines. “The stipulations of this and other Chinese-owned journals with respect to Taiwanese affiliations are beyond our control,” it said.

Its position has prompted outrage from leading academics in Britain, who have demanded that Springer Nature stop partnering with journals that operate under rules set by authoritarian regimes.

Steve Tsang, director of the Soas China Institute, said: “That goes against everything academia is about. If a journal says that they want to politicise something like this — that authors from certain countries have to acknowledge certain political demands from certain countries — that journal should not be published with an internationally recognised leading publisher.”

Professor Tsang, an expert on the foreign and security policies of China and Taiwan, added: “For a publisher that is so strong in the sciences to bow to an authoritarian’s regime that is very heavily dependent on access to scientific knowledge . . . it’s completely outrageous and indefensible.”

Springer Nature is understood to be the world’s second largest academic book publisher after Elsevier, producing more than 3,000 journals with about 13,000 staff in 50 countries.

Ed Gerstner, the director of journal policy and strategy at Springer Nature, said: “Journals owned and run by Chinese institutions are subject to Chinese laws, and publishers, whether ourselves or any other organisation, are unable to dictate their editorial policies.

“These policies are made clear to authors by editors at the point of submission so that they can choose to submit elsewhere if they wish. For the more than 1,800 journals that we wholly own the decision is with authors how their institutional affiliation is rendered.”