The writer Jiang Fangzhou, known in China as a 'literary prodigy girl,' has become embroiled in an academic fraud scandal. Tsinghua University Professor Xiao Ying has made a real-name accusation against Jiang Fangzhou, alleging that her master's thesis from Renmin University of China contains systematic fraud, and has publicly posted evidence on Weibo. Renmin University has responded that it has launched an investigation, while Jiang Fangzhou has yet to respond.
As early as last August, Xiao Ying claimed that Jiang Fangzhou's master's thesis was fraudulent, but the school's official investigation has taken nearly three months and still has not produced any conclusions. On Saturday (the 3rd), Xiao Ying once again made the accusation public on Weibo, stating that after examining Jiang Fangzhou's master's thesis in literature, he found that errors appeared throughout the thesis, starting from the 'Abstract.' Of the thesis’s 20 footnotes in total, not a single one conforms to academic thesis writing standards, and 16 of them do not match the sources referenced.
Xiao Ying pointed out that the examination found 10 instances of plagiarism and 11 instances of fabrication or alteration in the thesis. As an example, he noted that when citing William Godwin's work, the title 'Enquiry Concerning Political Justice' was incorrectly written as 'Social Justice,' and the publication year of the Chinese translation was written as '1080' instead of '1980.'
Suspected of Buying AI-Generated Thesis
Xiao Ying suspects that Jiang Fangzhou's thesis plagiarized large sections from third-party sources, or even fabricated content that does not exist in any of the referenced literature. He bluntly stated that, considering the high level of development and application of information technology in 2019, there is reason to believe that this is a web-purchased, AI-generated thesis that was subjected to 'full machine rewriting' to evade plagiarism detection.
Xiao Ying strongly criticized that any qualified master's graduate could intuitively see that the thesis is completely noncompliant, questioning how it was able to pass advisor review, expert evaluation, oral defense, as well as approval from the departmental and university-level degree committees.
According to Xiao Ying’s WeChat public account 'Xiao Ying Aesthetics,' he has, since August 2025, repeatedly made real-name accusations on his account concerning extensive plagiarism and fabrications in Jiang Fangzhou's thesis. In April of this year, he submitted a letter of complaint to the School of Literature at Renmin University of China, and the school indicated it had launched an investigation into academic misconduct, promising to complete the investigation within 90 working days as required. In May, he submitted supplemental materials to the university’s Academic Conduct Committee and received confirmation of acceptance.
Public information shows that Jiang Fangzhou was once known as a literary prodigy. She was born in 1989 in Xiangyang, Hubei province, began writing at age 7, published her first book at 9, and became famous at 12. In 2008, she was exceptionally admitted to Tsinghua University, was the youngest-ever winner of the People’s Literature Award, and became the deputy editor-in-chief of New Weekly at the age of 23. In March of this year, Jiang Fangzhou became deeply embroiled in a plagiarism scandal, with many of her works alleged to have 'striking similarities' with those of literary giants like Camus and Nabokov.