Controversy over Jiang Wanan and Su Qiaohui’s English resumes: The difference in S.J.D. and J.D. degrees raises questions about academic qualifications

When Taipei Mayor Chiang Wanan served as a legislator, his English resume in the Legislative Yuan was recently caught secretly changed from "S.J.D." to "J.D.", raising questions. The Kuomintang then attacked Su Qiaohui, the New Taipei City mayoral candidate of the Democratic Progressive Party, alleging that "S.J.D." appeared on her English resume for the 9th Legislative Council. Li Sichuan, the New Taipei City mayoral candidate of the blue camp, ridiculed that by the standards of the green camp, Su Qiaohui was also a "fake doctor" who lied about her academic qualifications. In this regard, Su Qiaohui went on a show on the 29th to reveal the truth, emphasizing that she had applied to attend the S.J.D. doctoral program at the University of Pennsylvania and was a doctoral candidate. She also explained all the reasons why she did not complete the program.

Jiang Wanan went to the United States for further study, and his academic experience at the University of Pennsylvania has been questioned recently. Not long after, someone with sharp eyes discovered that his "beautified" English resume that he kept in the Legislative Yuan had been secretly "corrected and returned." He had not read S.J.D., and his resume originally stated that he was a "Ph.D." with an S.J.D. degree, but it was later quietly changed to "J.D."

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In the United States, S.J.D. (Doctor of Juridical Science) is the highest-level academic research doctorate in legal education. It focuses on original papers and academic research, and its main goal is to train legal scholars or university professors. As for J.D. (Juris Doctor), it is the basic degree in American legal education. It is mainly for obtaining practical training to apply for the U.S. bar qualification without submitting a paper. Although these two degrees are both translated as "doctor" in Chinese, they are actually very different. People with a J.D. degree will not be called "doctor" abroad. However, in the past, Jiang Wanan referred to himself as "Doctor" whether on his personal LinkedIn, in interviews, on election boards or in the communiqué. Now it is revealed that he has not obtained the corresponding doctorate at all, which has caused an uproar in the public opinion.

Later, the Blue Camp and Li Sichuan teams questioned Su Qiaohui's English resume as a member of the 9th Legislative Council and also criticized the double standard of the Green Camp. According to the standards of the Green Camp, Su Qiaohui was also a "fake doctor." In this regard, when Su Qiaohui attended an event on the 28th, she stated that she had never claimed to be a "Ph.D." and her Chinese literature resume clearly stated that she was a "candidate for the S.J.D. degree at the University of Pennsylvania." Later, because she was too busy, she realized that she would never be able to go to the United States to complete her thesis, so she gave up her academic status during the 10th term of the Legislative Council, and automatically removed her experience as a doctoral candidate in the 11th term. There is nothing to make an article about.

On the 29th, Su Qiaohui took the initiative to mention this matter when she appeared on the FTV program "Yiqi's Dinner" with fellow Taipei mayoral candidate Shen Boyang, and further revealed the truth. After receiving her Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree from the University of Pennsylvania, she directly applied for the S.J.D. doctoral class in the United States. "So I entered the S.J.D. class. This is why it is written on my experience that I am a candidate of S.J.D., because I passed the application."

She went on to reveal the reason why she did not finish S.J.D., "But after becoming a doctoral candidate, while writing the thesis, I got married and found out that I was pregnant. Basically, I had no intention of staying in the United States to have a child. First, I had no need for an American child, and I had no intention of staying in the United States in the future. In fact, I am not even a U.S. citizen. I didn’t even take the bar exam, and I had no intention of living in the United States for a long time; and considering that there were too many inconvenient places to give birth in other places, family members could help take care of the baby in Taiwan, and it was convenient for confinement. Most importantly, there was no sesame oil chicken in the United States, so I decided to come back to Taiwan to give birth.” After returning to Taiwan, I was too busy and had no time to go back to the United States to study, so I finally gave up my studies.