Font size: 
At 29 years old, Zhou Senfeng has become “China’s youngest mayor.” However, the news has caught the eye of some who are cynical about the circumstances under which Zhou has risen as a political star in just five years.
Among various issues discovered about Zhou through the so-called “human flesh search” – a group effort to dig up information about someone through the Internet – a history of plagiarism stands out. Zhou received a master’s degree from Qinghua University in 2004. But two articles he published, which would have partially fulfilled the degree requirement, are plagiarized.
The first problematic article, “An Analysis of the Core Competitiveness of Real Estate Enterprises in the Value Chain,” published in 2005 in “Business Research,” a Chinese journal, contains multiple similarities to another article, “On the Core Competitiveness of Real Estate Enterprises,” published in 2002. In addition to sections that appeared to be identical or nearly so, the core part of the Zhou article plagiarized the 2002 article.
Later, another article by Zhou, “Development and Operations Management of Shopping Malls,” published in 2004 in “Urban Development,” also a Chinese journal, was found to be mainly based on two articles published in 2002.
As of this writing, Zhou Senfeng has neither resigned nor given a public explanation concerning this. If he were publicly elected, he would have had to respond to the concerns of his constituents.
Qinghua University, Zhou’s alma mater, has indicated that it will investigate the matter. Supposedly, the university will revoke Zhou’s degree if the allegations of plagiarism turn out to be true. Furthermore, if the degree was the prerequisite for his initial appointment as a division deputy director upon his graduation from Qinghua, as seems to be the case, his position as mayor could be in jeopardy.
Regardless of what will happen to Zhou Senfeng, the saga has implications – both positive and negative – beyond the case itself. On the positive side, the case has shown, once again, the power of the Internet in exposing scandals and corruption in China.
Scandals such as Chen Jin’s “China microchip,” which turned out to be a copy of a U.S. design, and Zhou Zhenglong’s fake tiger photos that purported to show that the South China tiger was not extinct in the wild, among others, might not have been under the spotlight had there been no anonymous posts on the Internet providing the first information about these incidents.
All this seems to at least send a warning signal to Chinese government officials that they are under constant scrutiny for any improper behavior.
On the other hand, the Zhou Senfeng case casts a very negative picture of the Chinese academic community. This particular case of plagiarism is not an isolated one but just the “tip of the iceberg.” Indeed, there have been many similar and more serious cases, revealed again through the Internet. Formal channels for the reporting, investigation, and punishment of persons who do this sort of thing exist currently only on paper.
If Qinghua University, known to the world as China’s MIT, has been so sloppy in this regard, one can only imagine how rampant academic misconduct is in China.
--
(Cong Cao is a senior research associate with the Neil D. Levin Graduate Institute of International Relations and Commerce at the State University of New York. He received his PhD in sociology from Columbia University in 1997 and has worked at the University of Oregon and the National University of Singapore. Dr. Cao is interested in the social studies of science and technology with a focus on China. ©Copyright Cong Cao.)
