Police office candidate under investigation for lying about Tsinghua doctorate

Authorities in Changsha, capital city of Hunan province, said on Tuesday they were investigating a fake academic qualification case of a candidate for an auxiliary police officer job who claimed to have earned a doctorate from Tsinghua University, one of China's most prestigious, but actually graduated from another university in Shandong province.

According to a statement from the Yuelu district government of Changsha, the 28-year-old female candidate surnamed Zhang, who graduated from the Shandong university in 2018, "had always dreamed of studying at Tsinghua University".

"In recent years, Zhang had imagined herself earning a Tsinghua doctorate. She has lied about her educational background several times when applying for jobs, including during recruitment for local auxiliary police officer, by registering as a Tsinghua doctorate holder," the statement said.

On Saturday, the district government released a list of candidates who passed the qualification examination to become auxiliary police officers. A piece of information indicating that a Tsinghua doctor born in 1994 was among those who passed triggered public discussions on Chinese social media.

Tsinghua responded on its official platform on Monday that it had no information about Zhang in its databases.

According to a notice released on May 12, the Yuelu government is hiring 70 auxiliary police officers. Candidates are required to possess a junior college degree at minimum, the notice showed.

Many netizens questioned why her deception wasn't detected earlier. The local government said in its statement that "the examination was conducted online due to COVID-19 prevention measures, and the government will check the original copies of candidates' diplomas".