A Chinese professor adopted as the intellectual poster boy of the Chinese Communist Party has come under fire for plagiarizing the work of a dissident jailed by the government in the early 1990s.
Zhou Yezhong (周葉中), a professor at Wuhan University, is credited with much of the inspiration behind the current leadership's new ideological approach, with its emphasis on the "harmonious society."
Zhou has lectured the Politburo and Communist party chief Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and has been at the center of the party's efforts to square its ideology with formerly taboo topics such as human rights, the rule of law and constitutional government.
But his position as Beijing's golden boy has started to tarnish after he was accused of plagiarism by Wang Tiancheng (王天成), a former Beijing University professor who was jailed for five years in 1992 for attempting to form a rival political party.
Wang used an Internet discussion board to denounce Zhou's work. He has threatened to take legal action against the Wuhan University professor if an explanation is not forthcoming.
He told reporters that his book, The Constitutional Interpretation of Republicanism, was quoted "word for word" in Zhou's recently published works.
"He's risen to the top by repackaging fashionable terms -- human rights, democracy, rule of law -- for the party's ends," Wang said.
"But he reflects the emptiness of the party's ideology. They've got nothing and so he needs to raid the opposition camp for any new ideas," Wang said.
The Youth Daily, a newspaper given leeway to report stories suppressed by the rest of China's tightly controlled media, further publicized Wang's claim of plagiarism.
But that debate has now been muted following an order from propaganda officials to end further discussion of the matter in the domestic media.
Zhou has made little attempt to defend himself.
However, in an interview with a Youth Daily journalist in November he hinted that because of Wang's history of dissent it was not politically sound for the publishing house to leave his name in the accreditation notes.
The propaganda department last week ordered Youth Daily to suppress a dissection of Zhou's book by a liberal law professor, He Weifang (
However, discussions of the case have continued to spread on China's Internet.
He said Zhou took dozens of sections from Wang and other liberal academics without attribution.
"[Wang] strains very hard to make liberal political thought consistent with the official line, and that doesn't fit," He told reporters.
Discussions of ideology are a crucial aspect of intellectual life in Beijing's political circles, and each new leader is expected to promote his own philosophy.
Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) put his mark on the introduction of Western-style market reforms by declaring that "to get rich is glorious," while the concept of creating a "harmonious society" has been the catchphrase of the new leadership under Hu.
North Korea blew up sections of roads in its own territory that are part of links once used to connect the southern part of the peninsula with the north, in a show of defiance after it accused Seoul of flying drones over Pyongyang. North Korea detonated bombs north of its eastern and western borders at around noon yesterday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. South Korea’s military later fired off warning shots within its border, said the JCS, which also confirmed there were no reports of damage in South Korea from the detonations. A video released by the South Korean
It is usually a serene two-and-a-half-hour ride on Japan’s famously efficient bullet train, but on Saturday, the journey quickly descended into a zombie apocalypse, with passengers screaming in terror. Organizers of the adrenaline-filled trip, less than two weeks before Halloween, touted it as the world’s first haunted house experience on a running Shinkansen. On board one chartered car of the Shinkansen, about 40 thrill-seekers were ready to brave an encounter with the living dead between Tokyo and the western metropolis of Osaka. The eerie experience was inspired by the hit 2016 South Korean action-horror movie Train to Busan, in which a father and
A member of chart-topping K-pop group NewJeans yesterday tearfully testified to South Korean lawmakers as part of an inquiry into workplace harassment, amid a boardroom drama over her super producer. In recent years, South Korea’s K-pop industry has become a global juggernaut powered by the success of groups like BTS, but domestically it is known for imposing strict standards and controls on fledgling stars. Rising K-pop idols are expected to adhere to their powerful agency’s behavior and appearance guidelines, with many stars describing receiving extreme backlash from fans over perceived mistakes in their personal lives, for example dating. Hanni, 20, who is
IRANIAN THREATS: Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami said that it would be a ‘mistake’ for Israel to attack Iran and if it did ‘we will strike you again painfully’ Israel yesterday bombed a Syrian coastal city, while the US conducted multiple strikes on targets in Yemen nearly a month into Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Syria, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza all belong to the so-called “axis of resistance” led by Iran, which on Oct. 1 conducted a missile strike on Israel. Israel has vowed to retaliate for the strike. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami yesterday said in a speech that Tehran would hit Israel “painfully” if it attacks Iranian targets. “If you make a mistake and attack our targets, whether in the region or in