Chinese Academic Plagiarism Allegations Surface Again: Writer Jiang Fangzhou Accused of Thesis Fraud

(CNA Taipei, July 4) Jiang Fangzhou, a young Chinese writer once hailed as a "child prodigy," is reportedly involved in thesis fraud. Xiao Ying, a professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, yesterday detailed on Weibo accusations that Jiang Fangzhou's master's thesis at Renmin University of China is suspected of serious fraud, plagiarism, and fabrication.

The Hong Kong-based Ming Pao reported this today. Xiao Ying stated in his post that after reviewing Jiang Fangzhou's master's thesis, he found it riddled with errors from the abstract onwards. None of the 20 footnotes in the entire thesis met academic standards, with 16 not matching the cited sources.

Xiao Ying said the review indicated the thesis contained 10 instances of plagiarism and 11 instances of fabrication and alteration. For example, when citing foreign works, the book titles and publication years of translations were written incorrectly.

Xiao Ying stated that he has repeatedly filed formal complaints under his real name since August last year. In April, he submitted a complaint letter to the School of Literature at Renmin University of China. The university informed him that an academic misconduct investigation had been initiated and promised to complete it within 90 working days according to regulations. It has been over 10 months since his first public complaint, and the university's investigation has been ongoing for nearly 3 months, yet no conclusion has been announced.

Jiang Fangzhou, 37, began writing at the age of 7, published a book at 9, gained fame at 12, was admitted to Tsinghua University in Beijing on a special admission at 19, and became the deputy editor-in-chief of the Chinese media outlet New Weekly at 23.

Jiang Fangzhou has been embroiled in plagiarism scandals since last year. In June last year, China Newsweek reported that blogger "Sentimental Forest" discovered identical phrases in Jiang Fangzhou's works to those found in the works and talks of writers such as Albert Camus, Yan Lianke, and Vladimir Nabokov.

Scholars from several Chinese universities have recently been successively reported for thesis fraud, attracting widespread attention. State media Xinhua News Agency also published an article earlier criticizing the absurd and crude data in numerous theses, and stating that ghostwriting is prevalent and research is often outsourced.

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