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欺詐泛濫威脅著中國崛起
ANDREW JACOBS
《紐約時報》2010年10月6日
（翻譯：ziren）
（北京）沒人懷疑張悟本的推銷才能。通過電視秀，光碟和暢銷書，他使數
百萬人相信生吃茄子和大量食用綠豆能治療紅斑狼瘡、糖尿病、抑鬱症和癌症。
花450美元，即使重病患也能換來一次10分鐘的諮詢和一張處方，可是想見
張本人一面卻不容易——這位最炙手可熱的老中醫整個2012年的預約都排滿了。
但隨著今年春季綠豆價格飛漲，中國記者開始深挖內幕。他們發現與其一直
所宣稱的相反，今年47歲的張悟本並不是出自什麼中醫世家，其父是一名紡織工
人。他也根本沒有北京醫科大學的學位——僅有的學歷不過是從紡織廠下崗之後
念了一段函授課程而已。
張悟本假履歷的曝光引發了人們對時下泛濫的不誠信行為的熱議——眾多學
者和普通民眾抱怨已久——包括高考舞弊、研究造假抄襲以及在嬰兒奶粉中摻入
有毒化學物質。
最近對造假行為的一系列揭露才使人略感欣慰。在8.24伊春飛機失事造成42
人死亡之後，有關方面調查發現該航空公司母公司的100位飛行員存在編造飛行
經歷的行為。接下來浮出水面的是唐駿浮誇的履歷。這位百萬富翁，前微軟中國
總裁曾一度被捧為中國的英雄，謊稱自己是加州理工的博士。
很少有國家能保證不出這類轟動一時的欺詐。在美國，運動員嗑藥和華爾街
的醜聞層出不窮。但只有在中國，科研和教育領域的造假是如此泛濫，以至於很
多人擔心這會使中國經濟在更上一層樓時遇到阻礙。
誠信的缺失
為了建立世界級的教育體系，為了在競爭激烈的產業和科學研究中做出開創
性的成果，中國投注了大量資源，而且在網路計算、清潔能源和軍事技術方面取
得了顯著的成績。但有中外學者認為研究人員中誠信規範的缺失正在遏制中國的
潛能，也了妨害了中外學術合作。
「如果不改變我們的方式，就有可能被國際學術界排除在外，」中國人民大
學國際關係學院的張鳴教授說：「我們需要集中精力探尋真理，而不是聽命於官
僚或者一心滿足私慾。」
公立大學的官員們不斷壓迫學者們去掙論文引用次數——一種衡量創新的標
志，這使得論文剽竊和造假泛濫。去年12月英國的《晶體學報》（E）宣布由於
數據造假一次性撤消了多達70篇來自中國的論文。
英國醫學雜誌《柳葉刀》今年初發表社論，警告研究造假和論文剽竊已經嚴
重威脅到了胡錦濤主席提出的到2020年把中國建設成「科技大國」的設想。
社論說「毫無疑問，中國政府有必要把這一連串學術腐敗案作為警訊，重新
強化科研道德教育的標準和科研行為本身的準則。」上個月浙江大學出版的科學
期刊相繼公布了20個月內用軟體偵測剽竊的結果，可以說是火上澆油。這款名為
Crosscheck的軟體拒絕了近三分之一的投稿，懷疑其中有內容抄自已經發表的研
究。有的論文甚至超過80%的內容被認定非原創。
雜誌編輯張月紅強調並非所有的問題論文都出自中國，但她拒絕公布問題論
文來稿的細節。「有些來自韓國、印度和伊朗，」她說。
浙大的這些醫學、物理、工程和計算機類的專業雜誌在國內開使用該軟體之
先河。不過現在也只有他們一家使用，張女士說。
剽竊和造假
張女士的發現並不令人驚訝——一項由政府委託的研究表明來自全國6家頂
級研究機構的6000名科學家當中有三分之一承認有過剽竊或者直接編造數據的行
為。在另一項由中國科協去年夏天對32000位科學家做的調查中，超過55%的人說
他們知道有人涉入學術造假。
方是民是一位揭露黑幕的作家，因為倡導學術誠信和規範而聲名遠揚。他認
為問題始於公立大學體系，出於政治考慮任命的官員在其負責的領域內沒有專業
能力。由於科研經費、房屋補貼提職加薪各個方面競爭激烈，政治官員們只能根
據發表文章的數量來做決定。
「即使虛假的論文也算數，因為實際上不會有人去讀，」方先生說。他的筆
名方舟子更廣為人知；他的網站《新語絲》已經揭露了900餘起學術造假案件，
其中不乏大學校長和學術明星。
一旦剽竊被曝光，學校的同事們和領導們總會和當事人肩並肩站在一起。方
先生說其中部分原因是維持私人間的關係勝過保護機構的聲譽。而另一個原因，
他說，更發人深省：很少有學者的屁股乾淨到可以去指責別人。清華大學科技與
社會研究所所長曾國平曾協助上文提及的針對6000人的研究。他說這樣做結果之
一就是當事人往往可以逃避懲罰，只會鼓勵更多的剽竊。
他舉了陳進的例子：這位計算機專家曾因創製出一種尖端的微處理器而紅極
一時，結果被揭露是用摩托羅拉的晶元充數，只不過磨去了原有的商標。由於陳
所謂的微處理器通過了國家鑒定，還因此屢獲獎勵，所以2006年實情的曝光讓支
持他的研究機構十分尷尬。
即使陳進被所在大學解聘，卻也沒有受到任何起訴。「當人們看到被控造假
的人指還能開著豪華車到處招搖時，這發出了一個錯誤的信號。」曾國平說。
造假問題也不僅限於科學領域。實際上很多教育工作者認為中學已經成為欺
騙文化的土壤：擠進重點高校的競爭冷酷無情——在標準化的統考中獲得高分是
錄取的最主要標準。而花錢就可以買到代寫的文章和試題。當然也可以雇槍手冒
名頂替參加費神費時的兩天高考。
不僅如此，還有作弊工具——內置針孔攝像機的腕錶和鋼筆——可以和考場
外的同夥呼應傳遞試題及答案。儘管上述做法均屬非法，但根據武漢大學的一項
調查，去年在網上買賣論文高科技作弊工具的交易額高達1.5億美元，5倍於2007
年的數據；調查還確認有多達800家網站提供諸如此類的非法服務。
當然學術欺騙絕非僅出在高中生身上。7月在中國大陸和台灣有分支機構的
新澤西西森坦那瑞學院關閉了其在北京、上海、台北的商學院，理由是學生中欺
騙泛濫。雖然校方拒絕透露不端行為的細節，但已經嚴重到可以停發這些分校中
近400名學生學位的程度。該校官員說，校方允諾通過單另考試的學生可以獲得
MBA學位，但除了兩人外其餘都拒絕了這一機會。
波瀾不驚的欺騙
隨便向一個中國學生問起學術欺詐，得到的回應都是令人吃驚的無動於衷。
去年春天畢業的清華工科學生盧曉達（音譯）說，即使在所謂一流高校，平時抄
作業考試抄答案對學生來說也是家常便飯。他說：「這可能就是一種文化差異，
沒什麼不好，更沒什麼特別讓人羞愧的。對學生們來說，並不是不會做，而是為
了節約時間。」盧先生本學期將開始在斯坦福大學念碩士。
中國政府曾發誓要解決學術欺詐問題。國營媒體經常發社論譴責剽竊行為；
上個月，負責管理出版工作的政治局委員劉延東堅決要求關停現有5000種學術期
刊中的一部分。許多學者認為這些期刊的存在完全是為了滿足博士生和教授們急
於發文充數的需要。
方是民和另一位投身打假的記者方玄昌對這些堅決要求和譴責早習以為常。
教育部早在2004年、然後又在2006年宣誓全力打假決不姑息，但為此專門設立的
「學術道德監督委員會」和「學風建設委員會」兩個機構至今沒有做出任何懲處
決定。
最近幾年這兩位矛頭對準了泌尿科醫生肖傳國。肖自稱發明了一種外科手術，
旨在幫助患有脊柱裂的兒童恢復膀胱功能。脊柱裂是一種脊柱出生缺陷，會導致
大小便失禁；如果不加以治療最終造成患者腎衰竭和死亡。
在一系列調查報道和博客文章中，兩位方先生揭露了肖大夫的網頁上很多自
相矛盾的地方，包括肖吹噓他自己在國際期刊上發表了26篇英文論文（他們只能
找到4篇）以及他曾贏得美國泌尿學會大獎（他只獲得過一個論文摘要獎）。
他們揭發說，他自稱「肖氏手術」成功率高達85%則更有問題。在回訪的100
多位病人中，兩位方先生報告說沒有一位病人的大小便失禁痊癒，而近40%的病
人在接受所謂「肖氏手術」——將腿部的一根神經切斷重新連接到膀胱上——后
健康狀況惡化。（在早期的臨床試驗當中，做此項手術的美國醫生們曾發現結果
很有希望。）【羽矢按：這句括弧內的話是本文發表后新補充的。美國臨床試驗
一年結果正式發表在《泌尿學雜誌》，同期發表的同行專家評論認為，美國試驗
的「臨床療效與（肖傳國）此前所報告的截然不同」，見《國外同行專家對美國
肖氏手術臨床試驗結果的評價(XYS20100930)》】
不管真相到底如何，肖大夫被徹底激怒了。他提起了一些列控告方是民誹謗
的訴訟，逢人便講此仇不報誓不為人。
今年夏天兩位方先生都在北京街頭遭到殘暴的襲擊——方玄昌的頭部被兩名
暴徒用鋼筋嚴重砸傷，方是民被噴辣椒水，但從鐵鎚下僥倖逃生。
根據警方的通報，9月21日肖傳國被警察逮捕后，很快就承認了雇傭兇手實
施襲擊的罪行。他說，報復的原因是他認定對他的揭發使他落選了中科院院士。
儘管肖已認罪，但他的僱主華中科技大學看起來並不願意對他採取任何行動。
在校方的聲明中，領導說聽到肖被捕十分震驚，但會等到司法審判的結果出來再
採取進一步行動。
Rampant Fraud Threat to China』s Brisk Ascent
By ANDREW JACOBS
New York Times October 6, 2010
BEIJING — No one disputes Zhang Wuben』s talents as a salesman.
Through television shows, DVDs and a best-selling book, he convinced
millions of people that raw eggplant and immense quantities of mung
beans could cure lupus, diabetes, depression and cancer.
Enlarge This Image
For $450, seriously ill patients could buy a 10-minute
consultation and a prescription — except Mr. Zhang, one of the most
popular practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine, was booked
through 2012.
But when the price of mung beans skyrocketed this spring, Chinese
journalists began digging deeper. They learned that contrary to his
claims, Mr. Zhang, 47, was not from a long line of doctors (his father
was a weaver). Nor did he earn a degree from Beijing Medical
University (his only formal education, it turned out, was the brief
correspondence course he took after losing his job at a textile mill).
The exposure of Mr. Zhang』s faked credentials provoked a fresh
round of hand-wringing over what many scholars and Chinese complain
are the dishonest practices that permeate society, including students
who cheat on college entrance exams, scholars who promote fake or
unoriginal research, and dairy companies that sell poisoned milk to
infants.
The most recent string of revelations has been bracing. After a
plane crash in August killed 42 people in northeast China, officials
discovered that 100 pilots who worked for the airline』s parent
company had falsified their flying histories. Then there was the
padded résumé of Tang Jun, the millionaire former head of Microsoft
China and something of a national hero, who falsely claimed to have
received a doctorate from the California Institute of Technology.
Few countries are immune to high-profile frauds. Illegal doping in
sports and malfeasance on Wall Street are running scandals in the
United States. But in China, fakery in one area in particular —
education and scientific research — is pervasive enough that many
here worry it could make it harder for the country to climb the next
rung on the economic ladder.
A Lack of Integrity
China devotes significant resources to building a world-class
education system and pioneering research in competitive industries and
sciences, and has had notable successes in network computing, clean
energy, and military technology. But a lack of integrity among
researchers is hindering China』s potential and harming collaboration
between Chinese scholars and their international counterparts,
scholars in China and abroad say.
「If we don』t change our ways, we will be excluded from the
global academic community,」 said Zhang Ming, a professor of
international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. 「We need to
focus on seeking truth, not serving the agenda of some bureaucrat or
satisfying the desire for personal profit.」
Pressure on scholars by administrators of state-run universities
to earn journal citations — a measure of innovation — has produced a
deluge of plagiarized or fabricated research. In December, a British
journal that specializes in crystal formations announced that it was
withdrawing more than 70 papers by Chinese authors whose research was
of questionable originality or rigor.
In an editorial published earlier this year, The Lancet, the
British medical journal, warned that faked or plagiarized research
posed a threat to President Hu Jintao』s vow to make China a
「research superpower」 by 2020.
「Clearly, China』s government needs to take this episode as a cue
to reinvigorate standards for teaching research ethics and for the
conduct of the research itself,」 the editorial said. Last month a
collection of scientific journals published by Zhejiang University in
Hangzhou reignited the firestorm by publicizing results from a
20-month experiment with software that detects plagiarism. The software,
called CrossCheck, rejected nearly a third of all submissions on
suspicion that the content was pirated from previously published
research. In some cases, more than 80 percent of a paper』s content
was deemed unoriginal.
The journals』 editor, Zhang Yuehong, emphasized that not all the
flawed papers originated in China, although she declined to reveal the
breakdown of submissions. 「Some were from South Korea, India and
Iran,」 she said.
The journals, which specialize in medicine, physics, engineering
and computer science, were the first in China to use the software. For
the moment they are the only ones to do so, Ms. Zhang said.
Plagiarism and Fakery
Her findings are not surprising if one considers the results of a
recent government study in which a third of the 6,000 scientists at
six of the nation』s top institutions admitted they had engaged in
plagiarism or the outright fabrication of research data. In another
study of 32,000 scientists last summer by the China Association for
Science and Technology, more than 55 percent said they knew someone
guilty of academic fraud.
Fang Shimin, a muckraking writer who has become a well-known
advocate for academic integrity, said the problem started with the
state-run university system, where politically appointed bureaucrats
have little expertise in the fields they oversee. Because competition
for grants, housing perks and career advancement is so intense,
officials base their decisions on the number of papers published.
「Even fake papers count because nobody actually reads them,」
said Mr. Fang, who is more widely known by his pen name, Fang Zhouzi,
and whose Web site, New Threads, has exposed more than 900 instances
of fakery, some involving university presidents and nationally
lionized researchers.
When plagiarism is exposed, colleagues and school leaders often
close ranks around the accused. Mr. Fang said this was partly because
preserving relationships trumped protecting the reputation of the
institution. But the other reason, he said, is more sobering: Few
academics are clean enough to point a finger at others. One result is
that plagiarizers often go unpunished, which only encourages more of it,
said Zeng Guoping, director of the Institute of Science Technology and
Society at Tsinghua University in Beijing, which helped run the survey
of 6,000 academics.
He cited the case of Chen Jin, a computer scientist who was once
celebrated for having invented a sophisticated microprocessor but who,
it turned out, had taken a chip made by Motorola, scratched out its
name, and claimed it as his own. After Mr. Chen was showered with
government largess and accolades, the exposure in 2006 was an
embarrassment for the scientific establishment that backed him.
But even though Mr. Chen lost his university post, he was never
prosecuted. 「When people see the accused still driving their flashy
cars, it sends the wrong message,」 Mr. Zeng said.
The problem is not confined to the realm of science. In fact many
educators say the culture of cheating takes root in high school, where
the competition for slots in the country』s best colleges is
unrelenting and high marks on standardized tests are the most
important criterion for admission. Ghost-written essays and test
questions can be bought. So, too, can a 「hired gun」 test taker who
will assume the student』s identity for the grueling two-day college
entrance exam.
Then there are the gadgets — wristwatches and pens embedded with
tiny cameras — that transmit signals to collaborators on the outside
who then relay back the correct answers. Even if such products are
illegal, students spent $150 million last year on Internet essays and
high-tech subterfuge, a fivefold increase over 2007, according to a
Wuhan University study, which identified 800 Web sites offering such
illicit services.
Academic deceit is not limited to high school students. In July,
Centenary College, a New Jersey institution with satellite branches in
China and Taiwan, shuttered its business schools in Shanghai, Beijing
and Taipei after finding rampant cheating among students. Although
school administrators declined to discuss the nature of the misconduct,
it was serious enough to withhold degrees from each of the programs』
400 students. Given a chance to receive their M.B.A.』s by taking
another exam, all but two declined, school officials said.
Nonchalant Cheating
Ask any Chinese student about academic skullduggery and the
response is startlingly nonchalant. Arthur Lu, an engineering student
who last spring graduated from Tsinghua University, considered a plum
of the country』s college system, said it was common for students to
swap test answers or plagiarize essays from one another. 「Perhaps it』
s a cultural difference but there is nothing bad or embarrassing about
it,」 said Mr. Lu, who started this semester on a master』s degree at
Stanford University. 「It』s not that students can』t do the work.
They just see it as a way of saving time.」
The Chinese government has vowed to address the problem.
Editorials in the state-run press frequently condemn plagiarism and
last month, Liu Yandong, a powerful Politburo member who oversees
Chinese publications, vowed to close some of the 5,000 academic
journals whose sole existence, many scholars say, is to provide an
outlet for doctoral students and professors eager to inflate their
publishing credentials.
Fang Shimin and another crusading journalist, Fang Xuanchang, have
heard the vows and threats before. In 2004 and again in 2006, the
Ministry of Education announced antifraud campaigns but the two bodies
they established to tackle the problem have yet to mete out any
punishments.
In recent years, both journalists have taken on Xiao Chuanguo, a
urologist who invented a surgical procedure aimed at restoring bladder
function in children with spina bifida, a congenital deformation of
the spinal column that can lead to incontinence, and when untreated,
kidney failure and death.
In a series of investigative articles and blog postings, the two
men uncovered discrepancies in Dr. Xiao』s Web site, including claims
that he had published 26 articles in English-language journals (they
could only find four) and that he had won an achievement award from
the American Urological Association (the award was for an essay he
wrote).
But even more troubling, they said, were assertions that his
surgery had an 85 percent success rate. Of more than 100 patients
interviewed, they said none reported having been cured of incontinence,
with nearly 40 percent saying their health had worsened after the
procedure, which involved rerouting a leg nerve to the bladder.
Wherever the truth may have been, Dr. Xiao was incensed. He filed
a string of libel suits against Fang Shimin and told anyone who would
listen that revenge would be his.
This summer both men were brutally attacked on the street in
Beijing — Fang Xuanchang by thugs with an iron bar and Fang Shimin by
two men wielding pepper spray and a hammer.
When the police arrested Dr. Xiao on Sept. 21, he quickly
confessed to hiring the men to carry out the attack, according to the
police report. His reason, he said, was vengeance for the revelations
he blames for blocking his appointment to the prestigious Chinese
Academy of Sciences.
Despite his confession, Dr. Xiao』s employer, Huazhong University
of Science and Technology, appeared unwilling to take any action
against him. In the statement they released, administrators said they
were shocked by news of his arrest but said they would await the
outcome of judicial procedures before severing their ties to him.
(XYS20101015) |
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置頂卡
沉默卡
喧囂卡
變色卡
搶沙發
悔悟卡
匿名卡