WASHINGTON — China is cracking down on academic research fraud following revelations in January that publishers have retracted thousands of works by Chinese academics in recent years. However, observers say that addressing the problem will be difficult because it is so pervasive. 

According to the scientific journal Nature, some 14,000 papers were retracted from English language journals in 2023 alone, three-quarters of which involved a Chinese co-author.   

Last month, the Chinese Ministry of Education gave universities a deadline to submit a full list of academic articles that journals have retracted over the past three years, allowing the ministry to audit the retracted research and determine how widespread fraud is in Chinese academic settings. 

Although the findings of the Education Ministry’s review have yet to be released, Chinese academics, students, and professors say the problem is pervasive.  

Part of the issue they say is that it is easy to pay for research to be written by ghostwriters and published in low-quality journals. 

“If you have no problem financially, you can let others do your research for you. Whether it is publishing a paper or finding a journal, they have such a one-stop service,” Sun Fugui, a former graduate student at Ludong University in Shandong Province, told VOA Chinese. “And it’s not just students, even teachers use these ghostwriters.” 

The other problem, Sun adds, is that low-end Chinese academic journals frequently publish fraudulent research without checking for quality, as they previously faced little domestic backlash from publishing these pieces.

“The purpose of these journals is not to publish good papers or to let others see their  

great academic achievements,” Sun said. “Their purpose is to meet students’ and  

teachers’ need to publish papers.” 

Yang Ningyuan, the former director of a psychology research institute at Zhengzhou University in Henan Province, said he had received at least a dozen calls from strangers offering to publish articles for him in exchange for cash, all of which he rejected. 

“I know a friend who told me personally that he helped eight people write their doctoral dissertations and charged 20,000 yuan for each paper. These Ph.D.s eventually passed,” Yang told VOA Mandarin. “The interesting thing is that my friend himself is not a Ph.D. at all!” 

Analysts believe the political nature of research in China is in part responsible for academic integrity issues. 

Yun Sun, a senior fellow specializing in China at think tank the Stimson Center, said academic cultures in the United States and China both reward academics for publishing high volumes of papers.  

“The difference, however, is with the transparency of information, freedom of academic exchanges, and access to the Chinese research. All are heavily controlled by the state in China,” Yun Sun said in a statement to VOA. “If data is fabricated here in a U.S. university, the person’s colleagues and peers will be able to know and challenge them. But when the fabrication happens in China, it is difficult to impossible to verify.” 

Perry Link, a distinguished professor in Chinese and comparative literature at the University of California, Riverside said the volume of fabricated research in China reflects officials’ disregard for the truth.  

“Fabricated research is part of a broader pattern of official language use in China in which a statement is valued based not on whether it is true or false but on whether it ‘works,’” Link told VOA in a written statement. “Government officials cannot ‘crack down’ in such a system.  The problem is in the design of the system itself.”

Link said political involvement in research also dissuades researchers from producing high-quality new research. 

“Value judgments in the universities are made ultimately by political authorities,” Link said. “Cutting-edge research, even in technical fields, normally is done best by free-thinking minds who see themselves at the cutting edge, not ‘under’ a political authority.” 

Zhang Mingxin, a fourth-year undergraduate at a university in Beijing, said academic fraud as well as the government’s politicization of data have made it difficult for him to do research.  

“Everyone knows that China’s research is plagiarized, and it is no secret that it is falsified, but doing so will make the research very difficult,” Zhang told VOA Chinese. “Under strict government control, a lot of data is difficult to search, especially if some topics are relatively sensitive, and if you need to conduct social surveys, it will definitely be very difficult, because when people make relevant remarks, the government will definitely censor them, and if they are not careful, they may even be sent to jail.” 

According to Yun Sun, Chinese universities will fall behind other global universities because of their unresolved academic integrity issues. 

The Education Ministry has not yet released a plan to alleviate these concerns.

“Chinese academia has not been famous for its creativity and has only become more serious about plagiarism in recent years,” Yun Sun wrote. “As the Chinese academics try to compete with their global peers, the quality problems of their research will be more and more revealed.” 
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China on Monday wrapped up an annual meeting of its National People’s Congress. During the week-long gathering, China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, further cemented his grip on power. More from VOA’s Bill Gallo in Beijing.
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Taipei, Taiwan  — China concluded its week-long annual parliamentary meetings in Beijing Monday, passing amendments that will further consolidate Chinese President Xi Jinping’s power and vowing to adopt several new pieces of legislation that aim to safeguard China’s sovereignty and security interests. 

China’s rubber-stamp parliament passed revisions to the Organic Law of the State Council on Monday, which include clauses stipulating that the council shall uphold the leadership of the ruling Chinese Communist Party and safeguard the centralized leadership of the Communist Party’s Central Committee led by Xi. 

“Under the strong leadership of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee with comrade Xi Jinping at its core, we must adhere to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as our guide and unswervingly push forward the Chinese-style modernization,” Zhao Leji, the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, said at the closing ceremony of the week-long meeting.  

The amendments come after the Chinese Communist Party announced an abrupt cancellation of Premier Li Qiang’s annual press conference at the end of the week-long parliamentary meetings.

Some analysts told VOA that the latest amendments and Beijing’s decision to cancel the premier’s press conference, which had been part of the annual parliamentary meeting “Two Sessions” for more than three decades, are part of the Chinese leadership’s effort to redefine the state council’s role. 

“As Xi tries to strengthen his power, the state council has been downgraded to an organization focusing on implementing policies,” Liu Dongshu, an expert on Chinese politics at the City University of Hong Kong, told VOA by phone. 

He said the development would make the state council less influential in the Communist Party’s decision-making process and serve as a “big step for Xi” to consolidate his power. “In the past, the premier, who is the head of the state council, was seen as another big political figure in China, but now, it will no longer be the case,” Liu said. 

Since most decision-making power is now concentrated in Xi under the newly adjusted political structure, some experts say this could affect the Chinese leadership’s decision-making efficiency. 

[The Communist Party’s] “decision-making could become slower because everything needs to pass through Xi, but I suppose policy implementation might become faster since once an order gets into the hands of someone at the state council, they don’t have to think about it other than how to implement the order,” Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore, told VOA by phone. 

As China faces persistent economic headwinds, Liu in Hong Kong said Beijing’s attempt to consolidate Xi’s power may hurt the quality of its policies and be counterproductive to its efforts to boost foreign investors’ confidence in the Chinese economy. 

“I can’t imagine a very robust discussion about policymaking [taking place within the Communist Party since] Xi has such a dominant power,” he told VOA, adding that this development may reduce foreign investors’ confidence in China. “People will feel like China becomes more untransparent,” Liu said. 

Doubling down on national security 

In addition to consolidating Xi’s power by adjusting the role of the state council, China’s rubber-stamp parliament also vowed to adopt several security-related laws in 2024, which follows the trend in recent years. 

China’s top lawmaker Zhao Leji said last Friday that Beijing would enact “an emergency management law and an energy law” while revising “the National Defense Education Law and Cybersecurity Law.”

The announcement comes after Beijing adopted revisions to the Law on Guarding State Secrets last month, which broadened the scope of information deemed as “work secrets.” Last year, China also revised the anti-espionage law, which gives Chinese authorities more power to punish what it views as threats to national security.  

Some academics say the plan to adopt more security-related legislation follows Beijing’s efforts to expand the scope of national security since Xi Jinping came to power more than a decade ago, and it reflects lawmakers attempts to cope with the rising economic and social challenges. 

“Very soon after Xi became general secretary, he pushed the idea of “overall national security,” [which means that] national security would encompass a full gamut of issues, from politics to social and economic affairs,” Dali Yang, an expert on Chinese politics at the University of Chicago, told VOA in a video interview. 

He said the Chinese government has become very “security conscious” due to the economic headwinds and social challenges. “This past year, the Communist Party leadership decided to introduce a society work department into the Party’s Central Committee, [which reflects the government’s] increasing effort to be conscious of the challenges facing China’s society and economy,” Yang added. 

Chong in Singapore said the Chinese government’s plan to double down on national security may have negative consequences for China’s sluggish economy and the looming demographic crisis. “The thing to remember is that securitization is not cost-free,” he told VOA. 

“Someone must pay for it, and right now, it seems that the heavy securitization is putting a drain on the Chinese economy and innovation while discouraging investors,” Chong said, adding that the government’s growing emphasis on national security may also deter Chinese citizens from getting married or having children. 

Since the wide range of challenges facing China will likely persist, Chong said it’s important to observe how the tension between the economy and Beijing’s emphasis on security plays out. 

“Adjustment has to come from one direction or another if he [Xi] wants to achieve some of his plans because there is a risk that he could be stuck in a situation where he doesn’t fully realize either plan,” he told VOA.
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Beijing, China — Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries, or ZPMC, said on Sunday its cranes do not pose a cybersecurity threat, after U.S. congressional committees questioned the Chinese state-owned company’s work on cranes bound for the United States.

The House of Representatives’ security panels, scrutinizing ZPMC’s installation of Swiss engineering group ABB’s equipment onto U.S.-bound ship-to-shore cranes, in January invited ABB executives to public hearings to clarify its relationship with ZPMC, which they said raised “significant concerns.”

“ZPMC takes the U.S. concerns seriously and believes that these reports can easily mislead the public without sufficient factual review,” it said in a filing, referring to the probe by the Homeland Security and Strategic Competition committees.

“The cranes provided by ZPMC do not pose a cybersecurity risk to any ports,” it said.

ABB has said it sold its control and electrification equipment to many crane manufacturers, including Chinese companies, which in turn sold cranes directly to U.S. ports.

The U.S. and China, the world’s biggest economies, frequently accuse each other of cyberattacks and industrial espionage. Washington this year said it had disrupted a Chinese cyber-spying operation targeting U.S. infrastructure and was investigating Chinese vehicle imports for national security risks. It previously barred Chinese telecom companies.

ZPMC said the cranes it supplies are used in ports around the world, including the United States, and comply with international standards and applicable laws and regulations.

Listed on the Shanghai stock exchange, ZPMC is one of the largest port machinery manufacturers in the world, owning a fleet of more than 20 transportation vessels, according to its website.

ABB generates 16% of its sales from China, second only to the U.S. market at 24%.
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Beijing, China — China has intensified efforts to block software that enables internet users to access banned websites during a top political meeting this week, a leading provider of firewall-leaping software told AFP.

Beijing operates some of the world’s most extensive censorship over the internet, with web users in mainland China unable to access everything from Google to news websites without using a virtual private network (VPN). 

And as thousands of delegates gather in Beijing this week for the annual “Two Sessions” meeting, VPN software has increasingly struggled to circumvent the censorship while outages have become much more frequent, even when compared to previous sensitive political events.

“Currently, there is increased censorship due to political meetings in China,” a representative of the Liechtenstein-based service Astrill — one of the most popular VPN services for foreigners in China — confirmed to AFP. 

“Unfortunately, not all VPN protocols are functioning at this time,” they said. “We are working intensively on bringing all services back to normal, but currently have no ETA.”

The use of a VPN without government authorization is illegal in China, as is using the software to access blocked websites.

State media workers and diplomats, however, are allowed to access prohibited websites such as X, formerly Twitter.

Security has tightened across Beijing throughout the Two Sessions, with security officers patrolling streets with sniffer dogs and elderly volunteers in red armbands monitoring pedestrians for suspicious behavior.

Chinese social media giant Weibo has also been quick to block sensitive topics.

All hashtags discussing Beijing’s decision to call off a traditional news conference by the country’s premier were quickly removed from search results. 

And another, a reference to China’s economic woes declaring “middle class children have no future” was also removed. 

China’s domestic media is state-controlled and widespread censorship of social media is often used to suppress negative stories or critical coverage.

Regulators have previously urged investors to avoid reading foreign news reports about China. 

In a speech last year, President Xi Jinping said the ruling Communist Party’s control of the internet had been “strengthened,” and that it was crucial that the state “govern cyberspace.”
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Officials saw the crescent moon Sunday night in Saudi Arabia, home to the holiest sites in Islam, marking the start of the holy fasting month of Ramadan for many of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims.

The sacred month, which sees those observing abstain from food and water from sunrise to sunset, marks a period of religious reflection, family get-togethers and giving across the Muslim world. Seeing the moon Sunday night means Monday is the first day of the fast.

Saudi state television reported authorities there saw the crescent moon. Soon after, multiple Gulf Arab nations, as well as Iraq and Syria, followed the announcement to confirm they as well would start fasting on Monday. Leaders also shared messages of congratulations that the month had begun.

However, there are some Asia-Pacific countries like Australia, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, that will begin Ramadan on Tuesday after failing to see the crescent moon. Oman, on the easternmost edge of the Arabian Peninsula, similarly announced Ramadan would begin Tuesday. Jordan will also begin Ramadan on Tuesday.

This year’s Ramadan comes as the Middle East remains inflamed by the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. That’s raised fears that the conflict may spark unrest far beyond the current borders of the war.

Saudi King Salman specifically pointed to the Israel-Hamas war in remarks released to the public after the Ramadan announcement.

“As it pains us that the month of Ramadan falls this year, in light of the attacks our brothers in Palestine are suffering from, we stress the need for the international community to assume its responsibilities, to stop these brutal crimes, and provide safe humanitarian and relief corridors,” the king said.

Meanwhile, inflation and high prices of food around the world since the pandemic began continues to pinch.

In Saudi Arabia, the kingdom had been urging the public to watch the skies from Sunday night in preparation for the sighting of the crescent moon. Ramadan works on a lunar calendar and moon-sighting methodologies often vary between countries, meaning some nations declare the start of the month earlier or later.

However, many Sunni-dominated nations in the Middle East follow the lead of Saudi Arabia, home to Mecca and its cube-shaped Kaaba that Muslims pray toward five times a day.

In Iran, which views itself as the worldwide leader of Islam’s minority Shiites, authorities typically begin Ramadan a day after Sunnis start. Already, the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced Ramadan will start on Tuesday, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

During Ramadan, those observing typically break their fast with a date and water, following the tradition set by the Prophet Muhammad. Then they’ll enjoy an “iftar,” or a large meal. They’ll have a pre-dawn meal, or “suhoor,” to sustain themselves during the daylight hours.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar; the month cycles through the seasons and the months in the Gregorian calendar.

Muslims try to avoid conflict and focus on acts of charity during the holy month. However, the war in the Gaza Strip is looming large over this year’s Ramadan for many Muslims.

The war began on Oct. 7 with Hamas’ attack on Israel that killed around 1,200 people and saw 250 others taken hostage. Israel responded with a grinding war targeting the Gaza Strip that so far has seen more than 30,000 Palestinians killed and an intense siege of the seaside enclave cutting off electricity, food and water.

Scenes of Palestinians praying before bombed-out mosques and chasing after food airdropped by foreign nations continue to anger those across the Middle East and the wider world. The U.S. has been pressuring Israel, which relies on American military hardware and support, to allow more food in as Ramadan begins. It also plans a sea corridor with other partners.

The war, as well as Israeli restrictions on Muslims praying at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site, may further inflame militant anger. The site is also known as the Temple Mount, which Jews consider their most sacred site.

The Islamic State group, which once held a self-described caliphate across territory in Iraq and Syria, has launched attacks around Ramadan as well. Though now splintered, the group has tried to capitalize on the Israel-Hamas war to raise its profile.

War also continues to rage across Sudan despite efforts to try and reach a Ramadan cease-fire.
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