Rodney Johnson - Without Warning

One has to admit, the Chinese are an industrious society and culture. They’ve come a long way in a few short decades. They have shaped the world in numerous ways - for better and at times for the worst. They’re now the behemoth in the room to study, appreciate and quite often scrutinize, because their industriousness at times has been kown to create huge embarrassments.

Not surprisingly, another story has been surfacing in recent years, this time - academic fraud. The July 24th edition of The Economist delves into this topic. The articleReplicating success, Widespread academic fraud may hamper a drive for innovation states:

CHINA’S president, Hu Jintao, speaks often and forcefully of the need to foster innovation. He makes a strong case: sustaining economic growth and competitiveness requires China to get beyond mere labour-driven manufacturing and into the knowledge-based business of discoveries, inventions and other advances. 

Yet doing so will be hard, not least because of the country’s well-earned reputation for pervasive academic and scientific misconduct. Scholars, both Chinese and Western, say that fraud remains rampant and misconduct ranges from falsified data to fibs about degrees, cheating on tests and extensive plagiarism… 

The implications of widespread academic misconduct could be great. Denis Fred Simon of Penn State University argues that growing evidence of fraud “calls into question the overall credibility of the entire scientific enterprise in China-and unfortunately feeds negatively into the related concerns about the safety of Chinese products and the integrity of information coming out of China.” 

In practical terms foreign scientists may be deterred from China, as they worry about getting caught up in scandals. Early this year, after it was found that 70 papers on crystal structures submitted to an international journal by Chinese scientists had been fabricated, the Lancet medical journal called on China’s government to “assume stronger leadership in scientific integrity”. Measures taken so far, it suggested, had failed to get to the root of why some Chinese scientists lie. 

China’s drive to become a world-class competitor has created “The World Is Flat” phenomenon. Their huge access to human capitol has positioned them for success - including academic. However, being positioned for success and realizing success has become a challenge for many emergent economies. Simply because the world begins to expect more.  And the one thing the world expects more than anything else is excellence. This is the long-term challenge in front of China, and their ability to becoming a world-class player.