Peking University expels actor Zhai Tianlin over plagiarism claim

Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management has decided to expel Zhai Tianlin from its postdoctoral stations over plagiarism claims, according to a statement released by the university on Saturday.

The statement also confirmed that the investigation found Zhai’s mentor, interview team and the Guanghua Mangement School were lax in reviewing Zhai’s admission material during the interview and recruiting process.

Zhai, a famous Chinese actor, has been battered by public criticisms over the plagiarism scandal in the past two weeks.

Zhai posted a post-doctoral admission letter from Peking University on his Sina Weibo account, China’s Twitter-like social media platform on January 31, and later was found to be ignorant about the China National Knowledge Internet, China’s academic paper database used by university students in writing theses and dissertations. A heated discussion then erupted online over Zhai’s qualification to be admitted for post-doctoral studies, and later developed into a full-blown scandal.

As the scandal grew, one of Zhai’s academic dissertations during his graduate studies at Beijing Film Academy was found to be a 40 percent duplication of another paper.

On February 14, the Beijing Film Academy said that Zhai’s suspected plagiarism is under investigation by Beijing’s education authority, supervised by Beijing’s supervision commission and commission for discipline inspection of the CPC.

Zhai then released a letter of apology following the statement from Beijing Film Academy, announcing he had quit from the post-doctoral station of Peking University.

The Education Ministry has placed great importance on the matter, instructing the relevant parties to carry out investigations as soon as possible and adopt a zero tolerance policy on academic misconduct.