Chinese Anti-Fraud Influencer Geng Tongxue Exposes Two Sun Yat-sen University Scholars for Paper Forgery

(Central News Agency, reporter Zhang Qian, Hong Kong, July 3) According to reports, Chinese academic anti-fraud influencer "Geng Tongxue" continues to expose cases of academic paper forgery by Chinese scholars, most recently naming two scholars from Sun Yat-sen University for alleged paper fabrication.

Ming Pao reported today that "Geng Tongxue" released videos on multiple platforms yesterday questioning the papers of Xu Anlong, Dean of the Hong Kong Academy for Advanced Study at Sun Yat-sen University, and Zhang Changhua, Vice President of the Seventh Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, for suspected forgery.

According to introductions, Xu Anlong is a well-known molecular biologist and immunologist in mainland China. "Geng Tongxue" accused a paper by Xu Anlong from when he served as President of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine of having abnormal experimental data in multiple groups: numbers after the decimal point were identical, data in different charts differed by only 100, and the repetition rate of random data was abnormally high.

He stated that the probability of these situations occurring naturally is extremely low, yet they are concentrated in the same paper, leading to strong suspicion that the data was "manually fabricated."

However, the related videos also quoted Xu Anlong's explanation that the problems stemmed from errors in table input when integrating data before submission, which was an unintentional mistake. He emphasized that the core conclusions of the paper are reproducible and reliable.

The report pointed out that the implicated paper has been specially annotated by the official website of "Nature," alerting readers to doubts about the paper's data, but it has not yet been retracted.

Concurrently, "Geng Tongxue" alleged that Zhang Changhua's three original papers in "Nature" have multiple data anomalies. In one paper, data from different experimental groups are identical in multiple places, or can be deduced through simple addition and subtraction. He criticized the paper as "the most fraudulent Nature paper in history," questioning whether "the data was fabricated by the authors themselves."

The report noted that this paper was selected for "Top 10 Advances in Chinese Life Sciences in 2024" and "DXY.com's Top 10 Scientific Breakthroughs in 2024."

"Geng Tongxue" further claimed that the first authors of the three papers are interrelated, questioning whether the team has mastered "the technique for forging Nature papers."

According to reports, "Geng Tongxue" is named Geng Jiangtao and is a dropout doctoral student from Beihang University. Since April, he has established "Geng Tongxue Tells Stories" accounts on multiple platforms, becoming a blogger, and has successively reported top scholars from several universities for alleged paper forgery in international renowned journals such as "Nature" or its sub-journals.

Scholars reported include Wang Ping, Dean of the School of Life Science and Technology at Tongji University; Chen Quan, Dean of the School of Life Sciences at Nankai University; Kang Tiebang, Deputy Director of the Cancer Prevention and Treatment Center at Sun Yat-sen University; and Kuang Dongming, Vice Dean of the School of Life Sciences at Sun Yat-sen University, all of whom have been removed from their positions.

Additionally, Su Jiacan, Dean of the School of Translational Medicine at Shanghai University and a Yangtze River Scholar, is suspected of data forgery.

On May 27, "Geng Tongxue" publicly reported four more scholars, accusing them of image manipulation, data tampering, and numerical repetition in papers published in "Nature" sub-journals. These scholars are suspected to include Professor Lei Guanghua, President of Xiangya Hospital at Central South University, and Professor Zeng Chao of the Xiangya School of Public Health.

Last month, reports indicated that after causing a stir in the academic community, "Geng Tongxue" had announced he would temporarily cease his anti-fraud activities due to excessive pressure and concerns for his family's safety. (Editor: Chen Kaiyu) 1150703

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