The Brilliant Scapegoat: How China’s Top University Solved an Academic Scandal Without Changing Anything
When Renmin University cleared Jiang Fangting of plagiarism but punished her advisor, they didn’t resolve a scandal — they perfected a strategy. By sacrificing the middleman, the institution preserved the celebrity’s reputation, satisfied public outrage, and most importantly, avoided setting a precedent that would threaten the entire fragile system of Chinese graduate thesis standards. The real academic rot remains untouched.