Plagued by Plagiarism

An endemic problem in Chinese higher education is, ironically, fueled by pressure to raise standards

By PAUL MOONEY

Fang Shi-min, a molecular biologist, freelance writer, and self-appointed plagiarism buster, was poring over the online curriculum vitae of the new assistant dean of Tsinghua University's medical school last year after receiving an anonymous tip that the document included false information. He became suspicious when he noticed that one of the research papers it listed was about the molecular biology of HIV — a subject not related to the dean's specialty, which was surgery. Mr. Fang