Lin Chih-chien

Lin earned his bachelor's degree in business administration followed by a master's degree in technology management from Chung Hua University's College of Management in 2008.^[2][3] In 2017, Lin obtained a second master's degree from National Taiwan University's Graduate Institute of National Development, where his thesis discussed the 2014 Hsinchu mayoral elections.^[4] Both master's degrees were rescinded by the respective institutions after investigations confirmed that Lin had plagiarized his theses for the two degrees.^[5][2][6]

In 2014, Lin represented Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as a candidate for the Hsinchu City mayoralty election. He was elected as the Mayor of Hsinchu City after narrowly defeating Kuomintang's (KMT) candidate Hsu Ming-tsai with a 1,014 vote majority on 29 November .^[7]

Lin was re-elected in 2018.^[8]

In December 2021, Lin proposed consolidating Hsinchu City and County to form a special municipality. As he was term limited (maximum of two terms for the same position) for the Hsinchu City mayoralty, he stated that he would not contest the mayoralty for this proposed entity during the 2022 local elections.^[9][10]

In June 2022, Lin accepted the DPP nomination for the Taoyuan mayoralty.^[11][12] On 12 August, Lin withdrew his nomination for the Taoyuan mayoralty after his master thesis was revoked by National Taiwan University.^[13]

The following month, Taipei City Councilor Wang Hung-wei claimed that Lin had plagiarized a research paper cowritten by Lee Yu-cheng and Wang Ming-lang while completing his master's degree at Chung Hua University's College of Management. Lin's adviser Ho Li-hsing and researcher Wang Ming-lang both signed written statements that asserted Lin had been on Wang Ming-lang's research team. Lin's second master's degree, obtained at National Taiwan University's Graduate Institute of National Development, was called into question by political commentator Huang Yang-ming. Huang suggested that Lin had plagiarized from Yu Cheng-huang, while Lin and Chen Ming-tong, Lin's adviser at NTU, stated that Yu had utilized research material collected by Lin.^[2][15]

National Taiwan University began an investigation [zh] into the allegations. The committee found that Lin plagiarized from Yu, and advised that Lin's master's degree be revoked ^[16][4] National Taiwan University revoked his master's degree on 9 August.^[5] After the conclusion of investigations, Chung Hua University also revoked his master's degree on 24 August 2022.^[6]