Fake resume: Chinese police investigate woman who says she received PhD from Tsinghua in civil service exam
- The woman’s name was in the spotlight after she passed the first exam in the recruitment because she had “attended the prestigious university”
- But online attention that a Tsinghua graduate would apply to be a civil servant prompted an official investigation
Local police in south-central China are investigating a 28-year-old woman who submitted fake diplomas when she enrolled in a national civil service exam.
According to Tsinghua University: “There is no person of that name in our student database.”
The Shandong police said that Zhang did not study at Tsinghua University and that she had received a bachelor’s degree from a college in Shandong.
The announcement received significant online attention because people were shocked by the idea that someone who graduated from such an esteemed school would pursue grass-roots government work.
That online attention prompted authorities to look into Zhang’s background, where they found she had been lying about her education history.
In the civil service application, Zhang also claimed she had worked as an auxiliary police officer in central China, but it was unclear if she had in fact served in that position before taking the exam.
The incident has become a joke and triggered a wave of criticism in mainland China.
One commenter said: “It was too embarrassing, how could she be so naive?”
Another asked: “How did she pass the official review by the local review board?”
According to the Chinese legal service platform Hualv, there is no penalty for lying on a resume. However, forgery, such as making fake certificates, is illegal.
In 2021, a local court in Beijing ruled an import and export company had the right to terminate the contract of a former employee who had worked there for eight years because he had used fake diplomas to get the job.
In May last year, another Beijing-based court said a man, surnamed Zhang, must pay his former employer 300,000 yuan (US$45,000) for falsifying his education certificates.
