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China draws veil of silence over sacked academic
2006-05-15
Chinese authorities drew a veil of silence on Monday over the sacking of a professor for falsely claming to have invented a new type of computer chip, refusing to say whether he would be prosecuted. The firing of the academic at Shanghai's renowned Jiao Tong University, the alma mater of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin, represents a setback in China's stated goal of moving up the global value chain by boosting technological innovation. The university and the official Xinhua news agency issued terse statements on Friday outlining Chen Jin's misdemeanors -- which included claiming the chip could do things it couldn't -- but stopped short of outlining legal proceedings. "We've not received any information to that effect," said a spokesman at China's science and technology ministry. "Everything we're willing to say is already in the statements." The Ministry of Education declined to comment, and the university was also unforthcoming. "We've said all we have to say at this stage in the statement," said a propaganda official at the university. "We will release new information in a timely manner if there is any." The investigation started in December after a tip-off from an employee at the company which made the chips and where Chen was also general manager, the official Xinhua news agency said. "The investigation showed that there was serious fraud and deception involved in the research process for the chip series which Chen Jin was responsible for," Xinhua said. Chen, once the head of the university's microelectronics faculty, would have to repay government funding, Jiao Tong said in a statement. "Shanghai Jiao Tong University has always upheld the scientific spirit of seeking the truth, and opposes any type of academic fraud," it said. The university also said the chips used technology from another company, though it did not provide details, suggesting intellectual property rights may also have been violated. A lawyer at a Western law firm in China said he did not expect a law suit, as the government seemed only to be paying lip service to a much touted high-level campaign against piracy. "I see more publicity going on these days," said one. "At a practical level, of course, you don't expect things to change overnight." The scandal echoes a case in South Korea, where scientist Hwang Woo-suk was stripped of his titles at Seoul National University for fabricating data on the cloning of human stem cells. Hwang's team basked in global acclaim and Hwang had rock-star like status at home where he was often called "the pride of Korea" after his team said it had achieved three milestones and put the country at the center of stem cell research.
Business profs rethinking ethics classes (2006-06-16)Stanford professor sues Joyce's estate (2006-06-12)China draws veil of silence over sacked academic (2006-05-15)More Professors Ban Laptops in Class (2006-05-04)Tenn. Professor Elected to Science Academy (2006-04-27)
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