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HIGHER CALLING

FOR CHINESE SCIENTISTS falsifying research and resumes, Fang Zhouzi is a dreaded name. The molecular biologist and freelance writer runs a popular website, New Threads, highlighting academic corruption on the mainland.

Fang, whose real name is Fang Shimin, was credited last year with the expulsion of several graduate students and the dismissal of three prominent academics - Liu Hui, assistant dean of medicine at Tsinghua University; Yang Jie, dean of the school of life sciences and technology at Tongji University, Shanghai; and Hefei Industry University professor Yang Jing'an - for plagiarising research.

Following the series of scandals, the Ministry of Science and Technology announced last week that a science ethics committee and a supervisory office would be set up to combat academic fraud and plagiarism. But the self-appointed scientific watchdog hasn't been heartened by the news.

The New Threads site (www.xys.org) is blocked on the mainland, although the content is accessible through mirror sites. And, after six years of exposing scientific misconduct on the Web, Fang reckons the official monitoring system will be ineffective without a democratic government, independent scientific and educational institutions and a free press. On the contrary, the 39-year-old says his work is getting harder, as more influential people are hurt by his exposes.

'We definitely need a system [to expose wrongdoing]; an individual's power is limited,' Fang says at his Beijing home. 'But I seriously doubt that it [the official monitoring system] can work. Some [academic] fraud cases are linked to the Ministry of Science and Technology, so it's in their interest to protect those dishonest scientists. Academic corruption is a social and political problem.'

Fang claims he has uncovered up to 600 cases of scientific misconduct since 2000, but most were ignored by the universities and the government.

Dismissal of influential scientists is rare. In Liu's case, Fang says Tsinghua administrators were reluctant to mete out any discipline, and only took action following pressure from his colleagues. Liu was fired four months after Fang's accusations were published on his website.

'Even when a case is disclosed, the university will try to cover it up to protect its reputation and economic interests,' he says. 'This applies particularly when the accused is powerful, for example, members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. They can bring in a lot of funding, and they have deep-rooted relations within the university or with senior officials.'

He cites how none of the 20 academy members that he linked to plagiarism or misconduct had been officially investigated or punished.

Fang, who earned his doctorate in the US, says he turned fraud fighter after learning about the prevalence of mainland scientific chicanery through online news reports. The articles showed that although many returning researchers were feted as heroes, the importance of their research was often exaggerated and some were even lying on their CVs. So, he began to expose such misconduct.

Royalties paid by a US biotech company for the use of an HIV-related protein that he and three other scientists isolated gives him some financial stability. But he makes his living mainly as a newspaper columnist and from his books. 'I live a simple life and this income is enough,' he says.

In contrast to his feisty online rhetoric, the Fujian native is a gentle, soft-spoken man. He first set up his website as a forum for Chinese literature lovers overseas. An amateur poet, he founded New Threads with a few friends in 1994 while he pursued a doctorate at Michigan State University. The forum posted Tang poems, Song dynasty prose and works by Lu Xun, his favourite author since childhood. 'Lu was a lonely warrior, fighting against social maladies at that time,' he says.

Influenced by Lu's idealism, Fang gave up academic research after gaining his PhD to fight academic corruption.

'It was smooth-going at that time because most of my targets were overseas students who cheated on their CVs when they returned to China,' he says. 'But in 2003, when I began to target more domestic scientists, the resistance grew.'

Critics argue that Fang isn't qualified to comment on fields outside his specialisation, such as social science and the liberal arts. His belligerent tone - offenders are often described as 'crooks' and 'idiots' - further grates on establishment figures used to more circumspect criticism. But he insists his training as a researcher in the US and as a literature lover enables him to make basic judgments. Moreover, he says he is aided by many insiders and leading scholars. Thanks to the internet, he often receives tips from other laboratory scientists who are afraid to speak up for fear of losing their jobs. He doesn't publish an informant's name without permission, but neither does he entertain anonymous submissions. Charges must be supported by evidence and he undertakes some of his own investigation, including seeking help from leading scholars, before making any accusations public.

A few allegations later proved groundless, but Fang defends his actions, saying he publishes corrections and apologies. That gets short shrift from opponents, who note that his website allows little room for comments from detractors.

That's not to say Fang has emerged unscathed from his no-holds-barred campaigning. He has lost two libel cases in Beijing and Xian, and is still appealing the judgment in another suit in Wuhan.

However, the scientific gadfly hasn't been left in the cold. In November, several celebrity academics, including physicist He Zuoxiu, set up a fund to help fight rampant fraud among scientists. And Fang is the first to benefit - the fund will contribute to his legal defence.

Fang remains defiant, attributing his court defeats to a warped legal system on the mainland, and refuses to apologise because his writings 'are not personal attacks'. The latest target of his campaign against bad science is traditional Chinese medicine. He says the ancient methods of healing are based on a combination of folk experiences, philosophy and even superstition. 'Many herbal medicines are actually very toxic; they have to be studied carefully before being used for treatment. But many practitioners cover this up to make money,' he says.

He says ordinary Chinese hold many misconceptions about science, and wants to write more stories to make it accessible to the public. His latest book, Science and Health, is a collection of such stories.

'It's going to be my major work in the future.' he says. 'Exposing scientific fraud is destructive, but writing popular science materials is constructive. I'm more interested in the latter because it combines my two interests, science and writing,'

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