Recently, Chinese renowned academic anti-counterfeiting science popularization blogger “Geng Xue” posted a video on social media, directly accusing Professor Chang Lingqian, vice dean of the School of Biological and Medical Engineering at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Beihang), of suspected data fraud in his paper published in the top international journal “Nature.” Since April this year, the blogger has continuously reported multiple renowned universities’ deans-senior scholars for allegedly falsifying authorship in papers, leading to the dismissal of at least 4 deans.
On June 16, “Geng Xue” posted a video on Douyin, questioning the experimental data of the paper published by Chang Lingqian in “Nature” in April 2025 as “perfect to the point of suspicion,” suggesting it may be “fabricated data.”
“Geng Xue” pointed out that real experimental data should have random errors and fluctuations, but the curves of the second and third experiments presented in the paper can be accurately derived from the first data through a fixed formula, stating that “this cannot be data generated in a real laboratory.”
Public information shows that Chang Lingqian is a national young talent of the Communist Party of China, a leading figure in the Ten Thousand Talent Plan, a recipient of special subsidies from the State Council, with research areas including cell biochips, nano electroporation, etc.
According to reports in mainland China’s media, after the video was released, a large number of netizens flocked to the official website of Beihang University and the School of Biological and Medical Engineering to check Chang Lingqian’s resume and research achievements page. The school’s official website was temporarily down, showing a “500 service-side error,” and Chang Lingqian’s research group website also displayed “under construction,” gradually recovering only by 10 p.m. that night.
As of now, the university and the involved school have not made an official response to the reported incident involving Chang Lingqian.
In addition to Chang Lingqian, “Geng Xue” recently also accused the team of Professor Wang Jun from the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Beihang University of data inconsistencies in two papers published in the “Journal of Mechanical Engineering” and “Journal of Aeronautics.”
Originally named Geng Jiangtao, “Geng Xue” has been reporting deans from Tongji University, Sun Yat-sen University, Shanghai University, Nankai University for alleged data fraud in papers published in “Nature” since April 9 this year, resulting in the dismissal of deans from several prestigious universities.
This includes Wang Ping, dean of the School of Life Science and Technology at Tongji University on May 6, Kuang Dongming, deputy dean of the School of Life Sciences at Sun Yat-sen University on May 30, Chen Quan, dean of the School of Life Sciences at Nankai University on May 30, and Su Jiacan, dean of the School of Translational Medicine at Shanghai University on June 12.