MCLC: corruption scandal hits Renda

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: corruption scandal hits Renda
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Source: Sinosphere Blog, NYT (11/28/13):
http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/28/corruption-scandal-hits-one-
of-chinas-top-universities/

Corruption Scandal Hits One of China’s Top Universities
By AUSTIN RAMZY 

Renmin University of China, in Beijing, one of the leading centers of
higher learning in the country, conferred its first degrees this year in a
new graduate program
<http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/china/130802/
chinese-master-corruption-renmin-university-beijing> in combating
corruption. Future classes now have a case study close to home to draw
from.

This week, the head of the university’s student admissions office was
accused of trying to flee the country after he came under investigation in
a corruption case involving hundreds of millions of renminbi, according to
Chinese news reports. A Ministry of Education press officer confirmed
<http://weibo.com/2656274875/AkO7u5tlI> to state-run China Central
Television that the administrator, Cai Rongsheng, was under investigation,
without disclosing further details.

The Legal Evening News reported
<http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2013-11-27/141028825995.shtml> that Mr. Cai,
48, had attempted to flee the country for Canada and was stopped in the
southern city of Shenzhen with a fake passport. A university spokesman
told the newspaper that Mr. Cai had run into unspecified legal problems
but denied that Mr. Cai had attempted to flee.

Few details of the alleged corruption have been revealed. The Legal
Evening News quoted a Renmin University professor, Zhang Keyun, who said
he believed a system that allowed the university to recruit students
independently, outside China’s national college entrance testing and
placement structure, would inevitably lead to problems. The newspaper said
that Hu Juan, a former secretary to the university’s president, had also
been dismissed and was aiding investigators.

Reached by telephone, a staff member in the Renmin University admissions
office declined to comment. Phones at the school’s public information and
discipline offices rang unanswered.

Corruption in education, from kindergarten placement to the highest levels
of academia, is a source of widespread public complaint in China. As Dan
Levin reported in The New York Times last year, parents and students are
often expected to present pricey gifts to teachers, and schools often
charge illegal admission fees that, in the case of a prestigious high
school affiliated with Renmin University, can reach $130,000. Those
burdens are one factor helping drive growing numbers of Chinese students
to attend high school and college abroad.

Commentaries in the Chinese news media expressed concern but not much
surprise at the reports of corruption at one of the country’s most
prestigious universities.

“What is certain is that Cai Rongsheng was responsible for admissions at a
famous university, and his being investigated again shows the problem of
corruption in the field of academia,” read
<http://edu.workercn.cn/198/201311/28/131128140601707.shtml> a commentary
in The Qilu Evening News, a newspaper based in the eastern city of Jinan.
“If power doesn’t have any sort of controls, then corruption will become
ubiquitous, and the so-called ‘ivory tower’ will also corrode.”

China’s president, Xi Jinping, has made tackling corruption one of his top
priorities, and in recent months several provincial officials and people
with ties to the country’s powerful oil industry have come under
investigation. On Thursday, the Communist Party’s Central Commission for
Discipline Inspection announced
<http://www.mos.gov.cn/xwyw/201311/t20131128_14277.html> that Xu Jie, the
deputy director of the State Bureau for Letters and Calls, was under
investigation for “serious violations of laws and discipline.” The bureau
manages China’s notoriously ineffective petitioning system, by which
people who believe they have not received fair treatment can directly
appeal to higher authorities.

Renmin University was included in a high-level field investigation by
anticorruption officials that began in June, according to The Beijing
Morning Post. Such inspection tours generally focus on local government
and state-owned enterprises. Renmin University was the only educational
institution included in this summer’s round of inspection visits, the
newspaper said.

The other inspection targets announced by
<http://www.mos.gov.cn/xwtt/201309/t20130927_10888.html> the party’s
anticorruption body included the provinces of Jiangxi, Hubei and Guizhou;
Inner Mongolia; the city of Chongqing; China Grain Reserves Corporation;
the Ministry of Water Resources; China Publishing Group Corporation; and
the Export-Import Bank of China.

Guo Youming, vice governor of Hubei Province, is now under investigation
for unspecified legal violations, the anticorruption body announced
<http://www.ccdi.gov.cn/xwyw/201311/t20131127_14243.html> Wednesday.

Shi Da contributed reporting.