Two feuding professors have been suspended from their jobs at China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) over a plagiarism scandal, reigniting the debate about ethics at mainland universities.
Yang Fan and Jin Renshu, of the CUPL Business School, were suspended from teaching and recruiting PhD students from October 8.
Professor Yang, an economist known for his defence of Maoism, claimed that Professor Jin had plagiarised at least 100,000 words in her 180,000-word book, China's Human Resources Strategies in the 21st Century, from a doctoral essay by Northeast Normal University student Wang Dejun without giving credit.
Professor Yang said the plagiarised material accounted for more than 60 per cent of Professor Jin's book, and that the university's academic committee had internally upheld his claims. University sources said the academic committee had held several meetings since May to investigate Professor Jin's case but had not been able to reach a final decision on the matter.
Professor Yang published a series of articles on his personal blog presenting evidence of Professor Jin's alleged plagiarism and falsified academic documents.
Professor Jin also accused Professor Yang of plagiarism and complained about him launching personal attacks in late June.
The issue became headline news yesterday after mainland media picked up the story.
