Cheating claims against COVID expert rejected
Print Edition
A TOP COVID-19 expert in China was cleared of academic misconduct yesterday after some social media posts accused him of plagiarism in his doctoral thesis submitted nearly 20 years ago.
Shanghai’s Fudan University said in a statement yesterday that Zhang Wenhong’s doctoral thesis met all the criteria that were required at the time of submission, although “there were writing irregularities and improper literature citations in the overview section of the appendix.”
However, it “bears no effect on the scientific originality and scholarly quality of Zhang Wenhong’s research and doctoral thesis,” the statement said.
The hashtag “Zhang Wenhong’s paper does not constitute academic misconduct” started trending on Sina Weibo after Fudan’s statement, with more than 280 million views in less than two hours. Zhang is a leading infectious disease expert in Shanghai and is known as “China’s Fauci.”
Fudan launched an investigation on August 15 after some netizens took to China’s Twitter-like platform Sina Weibo claiming that Zhang’s doctorate paper was an academic fraud.
The netizens said Zhang cited a paper by Huang Hainan, from Qilu Institute of Technology, which was published in the Chinese Journal of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases in 1998, without quotes, notes, or an acknowledgment.
Before the plagiarism controversy, Zhang was attacked by some netizens after his “coexist with coronavirus in the long run” remark sparked debate about China’s anti-epidemic strategy.
After the COVID-19 flare-up in Nanjing, Zhang said on July 29 that the “world needs to learn to coexist with the virus.”
The remark sparked debates after some Chinese netizens, as well as foreign media outlets, misinterpreted Zhang’s view that China was dropping its “zero tolerance” strategy, which has proved effective in reducing the viral contagion and helped the economy to rebound.
On Wednesday night, Zhang said on Sina Weibo that China still faces great challenges from COVID-19 “but we must have steadfast faith. Our country’s current anti-epidemic strategy is what suits us the best. Only the one who wears the shoes knows if the shoes fit.”
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