The Century-Old Truth: The Mystery Behind the Shocking Scam of “Hanxin One”

Hello, audience friends! Welcome to watch “The Century Truth”.

Chips are the cornerstone and heart of the information age. Chips are widely used in almost all areas, from mobile phones, computers, home appliances, transportation, medical care, education, to airplanes, rockets, and spacecraft.

The most cutting-edge chip designs are controlled by American companies such as Intel and Qualcomm. Achieving optimal performance requires a significant amount of time accumulation, substantial funding, and a lot of engineering practice.

China is the largest consumer of chips. However, over 90% of China’s chips rely on imports.

In order to change this situation, in June 2000, the State Council of the Communist Party of China issued a document strongly supporting the research and production of chips.

It was at this time that a young man named Chen Jin, returning from studying in the United States, led the R&D of “Hanxin-I” at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, but ended up creating a shocking scam.

Now let’s take a look at what happened with the “Hanxin-1” fake incident based on the public reports of mainland Chinese media.

The website of the School of Microelectronics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University shows that “Hanxin-I” started designing its source code in September 2001, completed the design in January 2002, and successfully fabricated (trial production) at SMIC on December 21, 2002.

The “birth” of “Hanxin-I” took only over 16 months, and the setting of the source code took only over 4 months. This speed can be called a world miracle.

The “Hanxin-I” release conference, claiming to be “designed domestically, produced domestically, packaged domestically, and tested domestically,” was held on February 26, 2003. The press conference was hosted by the Shanghai Municipal Government News Office, with the heads of the Ministry of Information Industry of the Communist Party, the Deputy Mayor of Shanghai, and the heads of the Shanghai Municipal Science Commission and Education Commission all in attendance. Nearly a hundred global media reporters also witnessed this moment when the Chinese chip “rose” with the event.

At the conference, the expert evaluation team composed of academicians such as Zou Shichang and Xu Juyan, as well as the head of the 863 Program Integrated Circuit Special Group, Yan Xiaolang, unanimously assessed that Shanghai’s “Hanxin-I” and its related design and application development platform were domestically innovative, reaching an international advanced level, and marking an important milestone in the history of Chinese chip development.

The development of “Hanxin-I” brought many honors to project leader Chen Jin. He was specially appointed as a Changjiang Scholar, professor, and doctoral supervisor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and also became the CEO of Shanghai Jiao Tong Hanxin Technology Co., Ltd., General Manager of Shanghai Jiao Tong Chuangqi Technology Co., Ltd., and CEO of the Shanghai Silicon Intellectual Property Trading Center, earning titles such as “Shanghai Jiao Tong University President’s Award,” “Shanghai Science and Technology Leading Figure,” “Shanghai Top Ten New IT,” “Shanghai Top Ten Outstanding Youth,” and “National Excellent Scientific and Technological Worker.”

In January 2003, Chen Jin invested 75,000 yuan and acquired a 15% stake in Shanghai Hanxin Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd. Later, with the increase in the company’s registered capital and the participation of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the registered capital of the company increased to over 50 million yuan, and Chen Jin’s capital increased nearly 80 times.

From January 2003 to June 2005, Hanxin Company received a total of 31 projects approved by relevant departments. There are also 10 intellectual property declarations related to the Hanxin series and two layout protections on the official website of the National Intellectual Property Office.

In December 2005, just as Chen Jin was basking in the fame and glory brought by “Hanxin-I,” a mysterious informant sent a report to 40 relevant ministries and committees from the central to local governments, reporting the fake nature of “Hanxin-I.”

In January 2006, this informant published an article titled “The Startling Truth Behind Hanxin” on the Tsinghua University BBS, publicly exposing the fake scheme behind “Hanxin-I” for the first time online. The informant listed a large number of facts and condemned Chen Jin for falsifying data during the Hanxin development process to embezzle significant state funding.

This article immediately caused a strong public outcry.

Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where Chen Jin was the President of the School of Microelectronics, strongly denied these allegations.

Subsequently, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education, and the Shanghai Municipal Government jointly established an expert investigation team to conduct an investigation.

Over the course of more than two months, the expert investigation team conducted a comprehensive investigation and verification of the design process and performance indicators of the “Hanxin” series one to four chips, based on the contents of the report, involving interviews with whistleblowers, parties involved, relevant personnel, on-site inspection of technical documents, analysis and comparison of relevant technical data, inspection of chip demonstration systems, and review of related audiovisual materials.

The investigation conclusion found that Chen Jin had engaged in serious deception and falsification in the process of developing the “Hanxin” series chips, deceiving the expert evaluators, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the research team, local governments, relevant central agencies, the media, and the public with false research results.

The investigation revealed that the chip developed by his team and the chip demonstrated at the Shanghai press conference were not the same.

The “Hanxin-I” developed by Chen Jin was a 208-pin digital signal processing chip, while the one displayed had 144 pins.

These two chips were entirely different in size but still passed the expert evaluation group at the press conference, becoming the “pride of China.”

Chen Jin was sanctioned for his deception.

In May 2006, Shanghai Jiao Tong University announced to the media that they were revoking Chen Jin’s position as the dean of the School of Microelectronics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and terminating his professorship, ending his professorship contract.

The Ministry of Science and Technology decided to terminate the execution of the research project under Chen Jin’s responsibility, recover relevant funds, and revoke Chen Jin’s qualifications to undertake national scientific and technological projects in the future. The Ministry of Education decided to revoke Chen Jin’s “Changjiang Scholar” title, cancel his eligibility for government special subsidies, and recover the corresponding grants. The National Development and Reform Commission decided to terminate the implementation of high-tech industrialization projects under Chen Jin’s responsibility and recover related funds.

The reason Chen Jin was able to deceive many people, including experts, may also be related to his falsified resume.

The resume Chen Jin provided to Shanghai Jiao Tong University stated: Chen Jin, Fujian native, born in 1968, obtained a bachelor’s degree from Tongji University in Shanghai, and a master’s and doctoral degree in computer engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1994 and 1997. He worked as a senior chief engineer at Motorola Semiconductor Headquarters in the United States, serving as a chip design manager, leading multiple new product development and major project management for SOC system integrated chips. He received the “Outstanding Achievement Award” and Crystal Trophy from the company for two consecutive years in 1999 and 2000. In 2001, he returned to China, overseeing embedded DSP chip design, with primary research areas including large-scale integrated circuit design and testing, microprocessor system architecture and algorithms, and analog-digital mixed circuit design and testing.

However, the “overseas fact-finding” material provided by the whistleblower stated that Chen Jin’s research topic at the University of Texas was circuit simulation and test methods, not integrated circuit design. When he worked at Motorola, he was an engineer in testing, not a designer.

What is the truth behind Chen Jin’s falsification of “Hanxin-I”? Where did the high-end chip in his possession come from?

In 2002, Chen Jin went to the United States and, through his former colleague at Motorola, secretly downloaded the source code of a Motorola chip. With this source code, Chen Jin created the “Hanxin-I.”

However, the chip made in this way cannot be practically applied in systems because the chip was not coded properly. However, with the press conference imminent, the chip had to be functioning and demonstrated live for the public. In a hurry, Chen Jin commissioned his brother in the United States to purchase ten Motorola Freescale 56800 chips.

After obtaining the chips, Chen Jin hired laborers to sand off all the Motorola logos and designs on the surface of the chips, then had a house renovation company in Pudong erase the logo and add the “Hanxin” brand to the chips. Thus, the world-famous “Hanxin-I” was born.

Science cannot tolerate any falsehood or arrogance.

The R&D of Motorola’s DSP56800E was completed in Israel by over a hundred engineers over three years. There were over ten trial productions of the chip.

Chen Jin’s Hanxin team had only four core members, mostly consisting of master’s and doctoral students at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, totaling less than 30 people. In just 16 months, they claimed to have produced the world’s top-notch “Hanxin-I,” leaving them no choice but to engage in deception.

The “Hanxin-I” scam actually left behind some mysteries.

Firstly, how did the fake chip pass the expert evaluation? When the experts evaluated the chip presented by Chen Jin, including the academicians, why couldn’t they see that the chip was fake? He claimed that the chip developed and the one used at the press conference were different in appearance, so how did it pass the expert assessment?

Chen Jin’s team applied for 1.1 billion yuan in funding. Wasn’t this huge sum subject to approval? Who gave the green light?

After the incident was uncovered, there were rumors that Chen Jin had taken away the entire 1.1 billion yuan and fled to the United States. If this is true, he could be prosecuted and the funds could be recovered. However, no organization took such actions.

From Chen Jin himself and his team, to the relevant leaders and experts at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the expert evaluators, the Shanghai Municipal Government, the relevant central agencies, everyone involved in this massive scam, no one faced legal consequences, and the funds were not recouped.

What does this indicate? It is very likely that the large sum of money had already gone into the pockets of various interest groups, and Chen Jin was not pursued because those interest groups feared he would reveal the truth.

The disappearance of up to 1.1 billion yuan in funds may be an even bigger scandal than the Hanxin fraud!

Well, that’s it for today’s program. Thank you for watching. Goodbye.

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The production team of “The Century Truth”