It is well known that Internet access is restricted in China.  But who would expect that New Threads (Xin Yusi, www.xys.org), an overseas Chinese-language website, would be among the inaccessible sites?  Moreover, a search of the term “New Threads” on Google inside China and on Baidu, a Chinese-language search engine, did not even generate links to the website.

New Threads is not an anti-Chinese government website, nor does it contain pornographic materials or content about the banned Falungong cult.  It does not cover Taiwan independence, Tibet or Xinjiang. It simply reveals academic misconduct in China.

New Threads is run by Fang Shiming, better known as Fang Zhouzi, a Chinese citizen living in the United States.  A graduate of the University of Science and Technology of China, one of the country’s most prestigious institutions of higher education, Fang went on to receive a doctorate in biochemistry from Michigan State University and conduct post-doctoral research in the United States.  Instead of pursuing a career in academics or business, Fang has become a science writer as well as a crusader against academic misconduct in China.

Because of the lack of formal channels to single out “bad apples,” many Chinese turn to the Internet, and New Threads has stood out.  The website encourages real-name whistleblowers, although posts can be anonymous, and Fang Zhouzi also does due diligence and in-depth research to verify anonymous complaints.

According to Fang, since 1997 at least several hundred cases of fraud – mainly plagiarism, fabrication and falsification of data, exaggeration of research findings, misuse of research money, and the promotion of commercial products of questionable quality – have been exposed through the website.  There is even an English website that follows cases exposed by New Threads.

In recent years Chinese scientific and education authorities – such as the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences – have formulated regulations to deal with misconduct in research.  But rarely have cases of misconduct been raised by these authorities.

However, some stories that originated on New Threads have been picked up by Chinese media, putting pressure on those involved.  Serious investigations have been launched into some cases, which have led to the punishment of some of the accused.

Therefore, the existence of New Threads has been and can continue to be, a nightmare to those who have not behaved well.  They could become New Threads’ next targets, given the increasing attention in China to the issue of academic honesty.

Some of these potential targets have mobilized to attack New Threads, claiming that it simply fabricates facts, although almost all its cases are documented with sufficient and substantial evidence.  They have accused the website of being a forum to blackmail academics through online “big character posters,” or “dazibao,” a creation of the Cultural Revolution for attacking political foes.  Some have even filed anti-defamation cases against Fang.

They also have characterized Fang as a dissident, although he himself has been frequently profiled in and interviewed by Chinese media, most recently by Xinhua, China’s official news agency, on the popularization of science.  Finally, New Threads has been blocked, treated no differently from pornographic or anti-Chinese Communist Party websites.

As the New Threads website helps safeguard the integrity of the Chinese academic community, this censorship really does no good to the development of science and technology in China.