Recently, there has been a disclosure that Dong Lan, the Deputy Chief Judge of the Hunan Provincial High Court, was reported for plagiarism in his doctoral thesis during the public notice period. Prior to this, allegations of plagiarism were made against his doctoral and master’s theses, but no further action had been taken.
On July 4th, the Organization Department of the Communist Party Committee of Hunan Province released a list of officials for public notice before appointment. Among them, Dong Lan, the current Deputy Chief Judge of the provincial high court, was proposed for a leadership position at the provincial level. During the public notice period, a netizen posted online claiming that during the period of accepting reports, someone had formally reported Dong Lan’s doctoral thesis for plagiarism.
On July 11th, when asked by Haibao News, the Organization Department of the Communist Party Committee of Hunan Province responded that they had received information regarding Dong Lan and had forwarded it to the relevant department for verification.
This incident quickly sparked discussions on social media.
“If a report is made in real name and found to be true, it should be regarded as not passing through the public notice.” “How many officials’ academic qualifications are genuine? Making a big fuss over nothing.” “Before this, Dong Lan, when transferred from the Yiyang Municipal Political and Legal Committee to the provincial high court, was also reported.” “There were reports as early as 2019.”
In July 2019, shortly after being appointed as the Director of the Political Department of the Hunan Provincial High Court, Dong Lan was exposed for plagiarism in his doctoral thesis.
A netizen revealed that Dong Lan, the Director of the Political Department of the Hunan High Court, had extensively plagiarized the doctoral thesis “Research on the Fiscal Law Issues of Rural Public Product Supply” from the same cohort of doctoral students in law at Hunan University, Li Shiqiu. A check by Lizhi News found that the similarity rate reached 81%, with a high similarity rate of 78% to Li Shiqiu’s thesis in the same cohort.
On July 1st of that year, Hunan University stated that an investigation had been initiated into the matter. Seven days later, Dong Lan was exposed again for plagiarism in his master’s thesis.
According to internet detection data, Dong Lan’s master’s thesis entitled “Development of Bill Market and Its Major Legal Countermeasures” uploaded in January 2002 at Hunan University had a total text duplication rate of 52.3%, with a duplicated literature rate of 42.6% excluding his own published works.
On July 8, 2019, a staff member of the Hunan Provincial High Court informed Red Star News that the court was investigating and verifying the allegations of Dong Lan’s thesis plagiarism, with no conclusive results yet. Qu Maohui, the Dean of the Law School of Hunan University, stated that the university had initiated an investigation process on July 1st, stating that “for academic misconduct, we cannot rely solely on plagiarism detection technologies like iThenticate because these technologies emerged later.”
Red Star News reported that three months before, a Hunan University master’s graduate, Liu Mengjie, was reported for plagiarism by a teacher at Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, and subsequently found guilty of academic misconduct by Hunan University. On April 2nd, Hunan University’s official WeChat account issued a statement, deciding to revoke Liu Mengjie’s master’s degree, give a warning to her supervisor Hong Yuan, revoke his supervisor qualification, and transfer him from teaching positions.
Three months after Liu Mengjie’s actions were addressed, the incidents of Dong Lan’s doctoral and master’s thesis plagiarism remained unresolved.
According to Baidu Baike, born in October 1972 in Hengdong, Hunan, Dong Lan started working in June 1993. He obtained a Bachelor of Law degree from Southwest University of Political Science and Law in 1993, and a Master of Law degree from Hunan University in 2002.
Dong Lan previously taught at the Hunan Provincial School of Political and Legal Administration and the Law School of Hunan Normal University.
In September 2003, Dong Lan became the Deputy District Head of Dingcheng District, Changde City, Hunan, and obtained a doctoral candidate in economic law from Hunan University during this period.
In June 2006, he served as the Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission of Dingcheng District, Changde City. In 2007, he was appointed as the Deputy Secretary of the Linli County Committee of Changde City. In 2009, he acted as the Acting District Head of Dingcheng District, Changde City, and the following year was appointed as the District Head. In March 2013, Dong Lan was appointed the Secretary of the Shimenchun County Committee of Changde City.
In December 2014, he was appointed as the Secretary of the Intermediate People’s Court of Yiyang City, becoming the President in January of the following year. In October 2016, he became the Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of Yiyang City.
In June 2019, Dong Lan was appointed as the Director of the Political Department of the Hunan Provincial High Court. In May 2022, he was named the Deputy Chief Judge of the Hunan Provincial High Court.