方舟子的Blog

一份可疑履历在中国引发诚信问题的辩论

记者Jessie Jiang
（翻译：方舟子）

美国《时代》周刊2010年7月31日

唐骏似乎完美地展现了一个有全球眼光的成功中国商人的形象。他从微软中国区总裁的职位离职后，去帮助建设一个中国网络游戏帝国，并在2008年获得巨额薪水成为中国一家投资集团公司的总裁。但是这位商界巨子的学术成就看来被大大夸大了，许多他的中国崇拜者对这一事实似乎满不在乎，但已在全国引发了关于中国社会的诚信地位问题的讨论。

这个月早先时候，一位由生物学者转行的科普作家，以一己之力揭露学术造假而闻名的方舟子在其微博上披露说，唐骏从未像他在其自传的早期版本以及各种场合说的那样获得过加州理工学院的博士学位。方舟子说他查过加州理工的校友名单和美国大学博士论文数据库，但是在二者都未能找到唐骏的名字。

唐骏否认说过自己是加州理工的博士，把它归咎于他和出版社之间的沟通出了问题。在方舟子首次做出指控的5天后，唐骏告诉《中国日报》说，他的博士学位是从位于加州的西太平洋大学获得的。方舟子后来指出该学校在美国总审计局于2004年发布的报告中被归为文凭制造厂，并且不被中国教育部认可。唐骏还未对这一指控做出回应，但是中国一份杂志引用他的话说，“如果所有人都被你欺骗到了，就是一种能力，就是成功的标志。”

文凭造假在中国商业文化中并不少见。2001年，香港互联网巨头李泽锴被揭露出并未从斯坦福大学毕业，虽然他声称有这所名牌大学的学位。同年晚些时候，最大的中文门户网站的共同主席吴征也经历了相似的难堪，因为他被发现其博士文凭来自于美国一所未获认证的学校。

唐骏丑闻这个月在中国网上引发了一场夹杂各种反应和辩论的雪崩，归结到社会如何看待诚信。愤怒的网民要求唐骏道歉并辞去新华都总裁的职务，这家中国投资公司拥有一些在中国大陆和香港上市的子公司。但是唐骏的许多支持者争辩说应该宽容，认为对这一现象“文凭社会”要比造假的个人承担更大的责任。“唐骏毕竟是一个天才，”一名网民写道，“为什么我们要这么在乎他的文凭呢？”

这种态度受到了激烈批评。“这么多人（对丑闻）无动于衷或同情唐骏，这反映了我们社会总体上道德败坏，”上海复旦大学历史教授葛剑雄说，“（在这个社会）信任实际上是不存在的。”

直到现在，两个阵营的人数差不多。据北京一家市场调查公司最近在网上做的调查，3500名参加者中45.5％的人相信即便唐骏的确造假了，也应该“宽容地对待”。相同比例的人把“能力”视为一个人最重要的品质，而差不多数量的回答者则选择“诚信”。

在答复《时代》的电子邮件采访中，方舟子说他原本意料唐骏会无视造假指控，因为以前他揭露其他大人物时得到的都是这种反应。“在今天的中国，诚实不仅不被认可，而且常常被当成是愚蠢，”他说，“我知道许多中国人认为美国人很天真，容易骗。”

很难衡量唐骏从其声称拥有的学术履历中获得了多大的好处（如果有的话）。出生于1962年的唐骏在1994年被微软中国雇为高级经理，在2002年被提拔为微软中国总裁。两年后他加盟上海网络游戏公司盛大公司，该公司于2004年5月在纳斯达克上市。他最近跳槽到新华都一事得到了全国关注，因为据报道他设法得到价值1.46亿美元的公司股份作为年薪。几年来唐骏由于经常上电视谈话节目、到大学演讲，与听众分享令人敬仰的白手起家的发财故事，在中国变得家喻户晓。他题为《我的成功可以复制》的自传自2008年发行以来已重印5次。

自从针对唐骏的指控引起公众的关注以来，几星期已经过去了，但是尘埃还未落定。新华都的一名独立董事说他将尽快调查此事，但是公司至今未做正式决定。不管结果如何，葛剑雄相信，要解决学术造假泛滥的问题，靠像方舟子这样的单枪匹马的揭露者是远远不够的。“如果没有一个完全不同的社会信仰体系，我看不出如何能重建信任，”他说，“对此我丝毫不乐观。”

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2007297,00.html

A Shady Resume Sparks Debate Over Honesty in China
By JESSIE JIANG / BEIJING Saturday, Jul. 31, 2010

Tang Jun, President of Newhuadu Industrial Group Co., Ltd., speaks during a forum in Beijing on May 29, 2010
Wang Zhou Bj / Imaginechina / AP

Tang Jun seemed to embody the ideal of a successful, globally minded Chinese businessman. After leaving his post as president of Microsoft’s China operation, he went on to help build a Chinese online gaming empire and in 2008 landed a huge salary as the head of a Chinese investment conglomerate. But it appears that the business titan’s academic achievements were significantly embellished — a fact that doesn’t seem to concern many of his Chinese fans but has nonetheless catalyzed a nationwide discussion on the place of integrity in Chinese society.
Earlier this month, Fang Shimin, a biologist-turned science writer who has become famous in his own right for exposing academic frauds, revealed on his micro-blog that Tang never earned a doctorate from the California Institute of Technology as he claimed in an early version of his autobiography and various other occasions. Fang said that he had checked the Caltech alumni list and an online doctoral dissertation database, but had failed to locate Tang’s name on either one of them.
(See pictures of the making of modern China.)
Tang denied ever having made the claim, dismissing it as a communication glitch between him and his book’s publisher. Five days after Fang’s initial accusation, Tang told the China Daily that he received his Ph.D. at the California-based Pacific Western University, a school that Fang later pointed out was categorized as a diploma mill by a 2004 United States General Accounting Office report, and was not acknowledged by the Chinese Ministry of Education. Tang has yet to respond to that allegation, but has since been quoted by a Chinese magazine saying, “If your sincerity fools everyone, then it’s a skill and a sign of success.”
Diploma frauds are hardly unheard of in Chinese business culture. In 2001, Richard Li, a Hong Kong-based Internet tycoon, was exposed as having never graduated from Stanford University even though he had claimed to own a degree from that prestigious campus. Later that year, Wu Zheng, a co-chairman of the biggest Chinese-language web portal, went through a similar embarrassment when he was found to have received his Ph.D. from an unaccredited school in the U.S.
Tang’s scandal has triggered an avalanche of mixed reactions and debates this month in the Chinese blogosphere that boil down to how honesty is valued in society. Indignant netizens have called for Tang to apologize and resign as chief executive of the New Huadu Industrial Group, a Chinese investment corporation that owns companies listed on both mainland China and Hong Kong stock markets. But Tang’s many supporters argue for tolerance, holding “a diploma-oriented society” more responsible for this phenomenon than fraudulent individuals. “Tang Jun is a talented person after all,” wrote an Internet user. “Why should we dwell so much on his diploma?”
(Watch a video about China’s knockoff electric carmakers.)
That attitude has critics up in arms. “The fact that so many people are apathetic [to the scandal] or sympathizing with Tang reflects the moral corruption of our society as a whole,” says Ge Jianxiong, professor of history at Fudan University in Shanghai. “Trust is practically nonexistent [in this society].”
Still, for now, the two camps are about an even split. According to a recent online survey conducted by a Beijing-based market research company, 45.5% of the 3,500 participants believed that Tang’s alleged misconduct, if true, should be “treated with tolerance.” The same percentage of people viewed “ability” as the most important aspect of a person, while nearly as many respondents picked “honesty.”
In an e-mail response to TIME, Fang says he expected Tang would just ignore the accusation, because that was the reaction he had got when exposing other big shots. “In today’s China, honesty is not only unacknowledged but often regarded as stupidity,” he says. “I know many Chinese think Americans are na?ve and easily fooled.”
It is hard to gauge how much Tang has benefited, if at all, from the academic credentials he claimed to possess. Born in 1962, Tang was hired by Microsoft in 1994 as a senior manager and was promoted to president of Microsoft China in 2002. Two years later, he joined Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited, a Shanghai-based online gaming company that became listed on NASDAQ in May 2004. Tang’s latest move to New Huadu gained national attention as he reportedly brokered an annual salary package worth $146 million in company stock shares. Over the years, Tang has emerged as a household name in China as he frequented TV talk shows and university podiums, sharing rags-to-riches stories with audiences often gripped with admiration. His autobiography, titled My Success Can Be Replicated, has been reprinted five times since its release in 2008.
It has been weeks since the accusations against Tang first caught the public’s eye, and yet the dust is far from settling. An independent director with New Huadu said that he would investigate the matter as soon as possible, but no official decision has been reached by the company so far. No matter what the result, Fudan University’s Ge believes that the widespread problem of academic fraud will take much more than individual whistleblowers like Fang to solve. “I don’t see how trust can be restored without an entirely different social belief system,” he says. “I’m not optimistic about it at all.”