‘Huawei does not know her’: Chinese professor accused of holding a fake degree and claiming to be ‘military adviser’ with tech giant
- Peking University professor Chen Chunhua faces questions after members of the public fact-checked her qualifications and found one of her degrees is from a fake European university
- Earlier this month, tech giant Huawei issued a statement refuting Chen’s claimed links with the company and its founder Ren Zhengfei
A professor from China’s leading university who allegedly pretended to be a “military adviser” for tech firm Huawei and has a degree from a fake university in Europe has reignited public debate about academic integrity.
Peking University professor Chen Chunhua is facing questions over her educational background after members of the public fact-checked her claimed qualifications and found her doctoral degree was issued by an unlicensed university two decades ago.
According to her professional biography, the 58-year-old academic obtained a doctorate of business administration (DBA) from the European University of Ireland in 2001. The organisation has no website and isn’t included in the 25 legitimate Irish universities the Chinese education ministry acknowledges.
According to a report by The Irish Times in 2011, the self-claimed “university” operated without official approval from a Dublin address but had no office.
After obtaining her doctoral degree, Chen went on to do postdoctoral research at Nanjing University in 2005, according to her bio. For four consecutive years from 2015 to 2018, she was included in Fortune’s China’s 25 Most Influential Businesswomen Leaders list.
Chen is currently the dean of Beijing International MBA (BiMBA) Business School at Peking University, a professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Business Administration of the South China University of Technology, and is also a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore Business School.
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Repeated calls to Peking University and Chen’s office number went unanswered on Friday.
The intense public scrutiny of Chen began a few weeks ago when Huawei issued a public statement denying her claimed ties to the company and its founder Ren Zhengfei.
The company said on July 6 that it noticed “over 10,000 online articles” featuring Chen’s comments on the company and a claimed meeting she had with Ren, with some referring to her as a “Huawei military adviser”.
“Huawei does not know her, and it is impossible for her to know Huawei,” it said, calling these articles “false information”.
In one popular article written by Chen and published in early 2017, she recalled an alleged meeting with Ren, and claimed he acted as her driver after he insisted on picking her up personally.
After the Huawei statement was released, Chen responded with her own statement that claimed most of the articles that mentioned her and Huawei were not written by her and that the company was just a case study for her work.
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The scandal has resulted in widespread criticism and anger on social media as academic dishonesty, long a serious issue in mainland China, has been constantly in the news in recent years.
“Isn’t this academic fraud? How can someone who uses fake credentials be dedicated to real research and solve real problems?” one Weibo user commented.
