Editorials

Brave move

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-19 07:56

Well-known Chinese historian and intellectual Zhu Xueqin has publicly responded to charges that he had plagiarized part of his doctoral dissertation, by asking the university concerned to initiate a probe that would clear his name.

The professor of history at Shanghai University has asked officials at Fudan University, from where he received his doctorate in 1992, to investigate the matter, and has even offered to quit from his post if they determine that his thesis was in fact plagiarized. He has won wide acclaim by seeking a fair way to prove his case.

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Zhu, as is evident by now, is unique in making such an effort to remove the stain of plagiarism, which has dogged other persons of high standing such as Wang Hui, professor of Chinese at Tsinghua University, and Tang Jun, president and chief executive officer of Xin Hua Du Industrial Co.

Wang has refused to answer similar charges, while Tang has been busy denying the allegations and offering justifications instead.

Academic dishonesty has not been rare, and the lack of an effective mechanism to address falling ethical standards in academia has helped foster the practice of plagiarism in recent years.

Weeding out dishonest practices in Chinese academia will be a difficult and arduous task, but establishing a supervisory institution that handles all plagiarism related cases is one first step in the right direction.

At the national conference on education held in Beijing last week, Premier Wen Jiabao declared that the nation would foster a batch of high-quality Chinese universities that will be on par with world famous schools of higher learning by 2020.

To effectively meet this goal, strict ethical standards are a must.

(China Daily 07/19/2010 page8)