Absurdity, Allegory and China

Much has been written over the past few years concerning rampant academic misconduct among the Chinese academic and research class. It has reached a level where it has become a major problem: China issues another crackdown on scientific misconduct.

China’s Ministry of Education has stipulated seven acts of academic misconduct and how they will be punished in an attempt to combat scientific misconduct in the country.

But critics doubt they can solve the long-standing issue of fraud and misconduct in Chinese academia.

The circular, issued this month (19 March [2009]) says that plagiarism, falsifying data and references, fabricating CVs and changing others’ academic achievements or signing their names without permission are scientific misconduct.

In the past 10 days we have seen another example of academic dishonesty in the form of public abuse by a Beijing University professor of Chinese citizens who have no other recourse to address injustices but to petition government officials and agencies. On April 8 Danwei translated an op-ed from the Beijing News, Peking Uni prof in trouble for remarks discriminating against petitioners:

The professor [Sun Dongdong] has recently caused a controversy when he said that “at least 99% of frequent petitioners have mental problems, they all have paranoid mental disorders” in an interview with China Newsweek.

Mr Sun also stated that it was legitimate to forcibly detain them due to their disorders. According to UPI Asia’s article Are Chinese justice seekers insane?, “Sun is a member of the expert committee of the Ministry of Health and was a major player in drafting the country’s Mental Health Act.”

Now protesters are demanding Mr. Sun be fired. Protesters demand professor be sacked:

More than 200 protesters have been holding an angry vigil at Peking University since Wednesday to protest a professor’s controversial remarks on mentally-ill petitioners. Police have taken away more than 50, a university official said yesterday.

Sun Dongdong, head of the university’s judicial expertise center, set off a firestorm by suggesting in the March 23 issue of China Newsweek that 99 percent of people who repeatedly petition the government were mentally ill.

Although he said later he had been quoted out of context and apologized, protesters have rallied in front of the university with banners calling for Sun to be fired.

Miao Jinxiang, a senior official with the university, said although Sun’s letter of apology had been distributed to the protesters, they refused to leave.

A question that should be asked and answered is where were the 50 protesters taken to? In Sun’s world they should now be in a mental hospital receiving medication for paranoid disorders.

Unfortunately, the list of the seven acts of academic misconduct does not include a professor at the most prestigious university in the country ignorantly diagnosing an unobserved group. Petitioners, who are legitimately upset, are calling for his ouster, which is understandable given the ludicrous and wholly unsubstantiated nature of his public remark. That this is a man who was a “major player in drafting the country’s Mental Health Act” calls into question the legitimacy of that Act. No wonder more and more international institutions discount the work of Chinese academics. An offhand remark from an ‘academic’ with credentials makes it even more difficult for legitimate Chinese academics to have their research externally recognized as part of international solutions to global problems. Under Mr. Sun’s rule if one hundred people had their homes and/or fields illegally seized, only one (or less than one according to Mr. Sun – perhaps the upper torso or the waving arms) would have the mental capacity to legitimately protest, and the other ninety-nine should either be on powerful medications or be confined to a mental hospital. One wonders how Mr. Sun came up with this number? By looking out his window?

Mr. Sun’s remark, which given his position and high level of involvement in crafting the national Mental Health Act, is a blatant indictment of the state of mental health care in China. Under his guidance many sane, well-adjusted and legitimately upset petitioners could be sent to hospitals, forcibly confined and force-fed medications which could very easily make them psychotic. Interesting way of self-fulfilling your stats. In this scenario the “at least 99%” may actually be low. Why not just ramp it up to 100 and publish a paper: “We can make everyone crazy.”

Mr. Sun should, at the very least, step down, and the Mental Health Act should be vigorously reviewed. It is obvious that Mr. Sun needs to go back to school. Perhaps some re-education is in order. Or do we now call working in the Nei Meng [Inner Mongolia] reforestation program professional development?