Chinese man poses as ex-PLA official, learned scholar, consultant on key hospital projects
Suspected con man in his 60s who adopted an array of top-level personas is held on ‘cheating’ charges; case grips public imagination
A suspected con man in China has been placed under criminal detention for posing as a retired People’s Liberation Army (PLA) official and a top scholar to con schools and a hospital out of money.
According to a statement issued by the Public Security Bureau in the Nanshan District of Shenzhen in southern China, on August 19, Ruan Shaoping, 63, was criminally detained on the charge of impersonating a PLA official to cheat.
The scandal was exposed in early August by the news outlet The Paper in a report titled “Digging Out the Details of the Fake Academic Ruan Shaoping”.
The report said that over the past few years, Ruan was invited by a number of primary and secondary schools in the southern province of Guangdong to address pupils on the subjects of patriotism and traditional Chinese culture.
He also inspected the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Hospital in Boluo County, Guangdong province, accompanied by the vice director of the county’s Health Bureau, and gave advice on its development.
Ruan claimed to be an academician from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the highest title for a scientist in China.