Chinese cheating

Pressure in China to innovate seems to be taking its toll. FT journalist Richard McGregor reports that a fake chip storm rocks China’s science elite:

China’s scientific establishment has been shaken by the sacking of a dean at one its most prestigious universities for falsely claiming to have invented a much-praised “indigenous” computer chip.The scandal coincides with a concerted push by the central government to put “innovation” at the heart of an economic development model which has so far relied on imported technology.

...Jiaotong University in Shanghai said late on Friday it had fired Chen Jin, dean of the Microelectronics School, for faking research behind a series of chips for digital signals processing. Mr Chen was also the general manager of the Hanxin Sci-Tech, the company that produced the chips.

...Xinhua, the official news agency, said Mr Chen had “fooled” technical appraisal teams from the university and government ministries that had funded his project into believing that he had developed the chips himself.

“On the basis of the investigation summaries, the university concluded that Chen’s deeds had flouted academic ethical codes and the university constitution, and had brought the research community into disrepute,” the Xinhua statement said. Mr Chen’s chip was neither based on technology he said he had developed himself, nor could it perform the functions he claimed for it, the short statement said.

Business Week's Michael Mandel comments:

Now the question is whether this is an isolated instance, or whether it reflects a systemic pattern of Chinese leaders trying to push their country up the technology ladder faster than it can go. The Chinese economy has already made a stellar leap, clearly moving from 'developing' to 'low industrial' status. But can it go 'high industrial' or even "innovative" status in one big push? I don't think so.