Chinanews, Beijing, Nov. 7 – In recent years, a trend has occurred in the Chinese political circle – officials resorting to every means to get a diploma to improve their educational background. Some officials might work hard to achieve this goal. Some, however, abuse their power to seek personal gains. These unscrupulous officials use public money to bribe college teachers into granting them the diplomas they want. The Liao Wang Weekly recently carried an article to discuss this phenomenon.

 

In order to create a contingent of cadres who are younger, better educated and professionally more competent, since the 1990s the central government has raised higher requirements for Chinese officials' educational background. It has even set some detailed rules in this aspect.

 

Some officials do not have a diploma as required by the government. In order to keep their current post or even get further promotion in their political career, they try to use some dishonest means to get a diploma. Sometimes they abuse their power and public money to bribe college teachers.

 

“In fact, some officials have tried by hook or by crook to get a diploma,” a teacher in charge of teaching affairs in a Beijing college told this reporter. “In most cases, such officials will be present only during the registration process, or when they need to take exams or attend the graduation ceremony. Apart from these occasions, they seldom go to class, they even send their secretaries to attend the class. Sometimes, the classroom might be full of their secretaries, rather than the officials themselves.”

 

“In order to get a diploma easily, some officials send their secretaries to sign in the class for them on usual days and they will abuse their power and public money to bribe the college teachers to get the diploma they want. This has already become a ‘secret’ that everybody knows in society,” said Li Chengyan, a professor at the School of Government at Peking University.

 

Hu Changqing, former deputy governor of Jiangxi Province who had received capital punishment several years ago, was a case in point. The corrupt official once asked one of his friends to use money to get a Peking University's bachelor of law degree. With this diploma, Hu boasted that he graduated from Peking University. He even called himself a professor of law.

 

Another case was Ma Xiangdong, former vice mayor of Shenyang city who had also received capital punishment several years ago. During his term of office, he also got a master's degree. However, people around him all knew that when he studied in the Central Party School of the of CPC, all the theses he presented to the school were actually written by his secretaries.