Recently, 46 academic personnel from mainland China have been punished to different extents for allegations of plagiarism, forgery, and using ghostwriters to deceive and obtain funding.
According to a report from the National Natural Science Foundation of China on the 23rd, the committee has recently dealt with cases involving research misconduct and violations of project funding. Among them, Zhang Hongyu from a university in Beijing was found to have purchased application writing services from a third-party company during a fund project application process in 2021. The related fund projects were revoked, and Zhang’s qualifications for applying and participating in National Natural Science Foundation projects were suspended for 5 years.
Du Peng from a hospital in Gansu was involved in irregularities during the fund project application process in 2025, including repeated unauthorized applications, falsely listing others as project participants, applying for projects under false identities, and providing fake ethical approval documents. His related fund project applications were withdrawn, and his qualifications for National Natural Science Foundation projects were revoked for 5 years.
Academic papers by Qi Hualin from a hospital in Shanghai, Liu Feng from a university in Shanghai, Wang Xiaolin and Shu Yusheng from a university in Jiangsu, Xing Jinchun from a university in Fujian, Zhang Qingmei and Chen Jie from a university in Fujian, Liu Jinjun and Tang Bi from a university in Anhui, An Yong from a university in Jiangsu, Tang Hui from a university in Guangdong, were found to have issues such as trading partial data in their publications. Their related fund projects were revoked, and their qualifications for National Natural Science Foundation projects were suspended for 3 years.
Papers by Zhang Yuhong from a university in Hainan were found to involve trading papers, unauthorized use of others’ names, and falsely attributing others’ projects, resulting in a 5-year suspension of qualifications for National Natural Science Foundation projects.
Ouyang Canhui from a university in Jiangxi had problems with buying and selling research data in fund project applications in 2022, 2023, and 2025, leading to the withdrawal of related fund project applications and a 3-year suspension of qualifications for National Natural Science Foundation projects.
In addition, papers by Shen Erdong from a hospital in Hunan and Sun Zhe from a university in Liaoning were found to have issues of image plagiarism and forgery, resulting in the withdrawal of related fund projects and 5-year and 3-year suspensions of qualifications for National Natural Science Foundation projects, respectively.
In total, 46 academic personnel were named in the report. Netizens have expressed disappointment, saying, “These are only the ones who got caught.” “Those exposed are the ones without connections.” “Does the law not deal with academic fraud?” “How many experts in a big country truly rely on their own skills and abilities?” “When teachers in education go bad, it’s a bigger threat than any corruption.” “Following this to the bottom may not be enough, try to follow it to the top.”