Fang Shimin is the Second Piltdown Man

Manufactured by the Chinese Haters

An Open Letter to “Coda Story”

Dear Editors:

On September 2, 2021, Coda Story published an article, titled “Hero, Zero, Hero: China’s Dr. Fauci is on a dizzy ride as pandemic persists,” in which Mr. Fang Shimin was described as “a San Diego science writer with a biochemistry PhD, who won the 2012 John Maddox Prize for exposing pseudoscience in China.” This letter concerns that statement only.

First of all, it is extremely ridiculous to call Fang a “science writer,” not only because he has been a plagiarist since his teenage years, but also because his so called “science writings” are nothing but “scifooling,” which means that he fools the public in the name of science. Briefly, since 2001, when Dr. Xiao Chuanguo, then a professor at New York University, reported to Science magazine that Fang had just plagiarized one of their articles^[1], more than one hundred, 122 to be exact, plagiarism offenses committed by Fang have been identified and exhaustively demonstrated^[2]. As a matter of fact, in 2011 alone, 5 separate panels convened by China Academic Integrity Review, a website formed by a group of Chinese scholars from all over the world, convicted Fang unanimously in 5 different allegations^[3], and one of the convictions led Dr. Robert Root-Bernstein, a professor at Michigan State University from which Fang received his “biochemistry PhD,” to publicly accuse Fang of stealing his article in 1995, while he was a graduate student there^[4]. Fang has yet retorted the accusation or demonstrated his innocence in any of these cases in public.

The fact is, Fang’s plagiarism is global and perpetual. In last year alone, I demonstrated that Fang plagiarized Dr. Becky Poole of the University of Bristol in 2009^[5], and American “Pseudoscience Fighter” Michael Shermer in 2008^[6]. Just two weeks ago, I proved beyond any doubt that Fang plagiarized Professor Fan Shuzhi at Fudan University in 1997^[7]. The subject of Fang’s stealing has no boundaries either: from poetry to history, from biology to philosophy, you name it. The funny thing is, even though Fang tries his butt off to show his omniscience, his ignorance has been the key to prove his thievery, because he essentially copied the mistakes and errors of his victims, which, according to himself, constitutes the iron-clad proof for plagiarism in American courts^[8], and that’s exactly why he would never dare to defend himself.

The unique database

In 2010, having realized the extensiveness of Fang’s plagiarism history, I started to build a database to record the discoveries. Since then, 122 cases of plagiarism committed by Fang Shimin have been documented. Compared with Fang’s claim that he and his gangsters bust 100 fraud cases per year, our number appears to be low. However, the quality of our cases is way beyond Fang’s reach, because Fang’s claim, even if it is true, which is absolutely not, was based on accusations only. As the above picture shows, every one of our cases is based on solid evidence, and some of them were evaluated by a panel according to a published protocol.

Secondly, by now, anyone who knows something about Fang knows the fact that Fang’s science is nothing but pseudoscience, fake science, or evil science, simply because Fang has been using it to promote his secret and personal agenda. For example, in 2009, after a court in Wuhan, China, enforced their judgement against Fang’s malicious defamation of Dr. Xiao by taking away more than 40,000 Yuan from the bank account of Liu Juhua, Fang’s wife, Fang immediately launched a global campaign to defame and smear Dr. Xiao’s major invention, a neurological and urological procedure called “Xiao’s Reflex Arc,” or “Skin-CNS-Bladder Reflex Arc.”^[9] You have to know the fact that Fang knows absolutely nothing about neuroscience and urology to appreciate his evilness.  

In 2012, Fang launched another campaign to demonstrate “scientifically” that Mr. Han Han, a famous and influential writer, used ghost writers in all his writings^[10]. Why would Fang want to smear Mr. Han?  There were many conjectures, but the one consented by most people was that Mr. Zhou Yongkang, China’s judicial and security tsar at the time, ordered him to do so^[11]. As a matter of fact, Fang’s downfall in China in 2014 was intimately correlated with Zhou’s downfall in 2013^[12].

In 2013, Fang launched yet another campaign to promote GMO food in China, and the means he used to serve that purpose was to desperately oppose any scientific experiments on the safeness of the GMO food, instead, he ordered his under-educated followers to eat GM rice in public to show the food is safe to eat^[13]. Why would a “science writer” employ such an anti-science strategy to promote a scientific product? No one knows exactly, but one answer is obvious: that was the safest and quickest way for him to get paid.

Since last year, Fang has been trying to demonstrate, orally and verbally only, without any scientific data to back him up, that wearing face mask is useless to prevent the spread of covid-19, and he has been vehemently opposing and vituperating any governmental measures, especially lockdown, to control the pandemic^[14]. The funny thing is, just a few days ago, Fang publicly demanded that a California teacher be fired, because he or she refused to wear face mask in classroom^[15]. Why did the mighty Fang want that poor teacher to wear the useless thing? Most Chinese people believe the reason is that his daughter is a school kid in California, and Fang does believe that face mask works^[16].

The question is: why would Fang who believes one thing want to promote the opposite? The answer is very simple: mandatory face mask wearing and prolonged large-scale lockdown have been the ways adopted by the Chinese government to fight against the pandemic, and since October 22, 2014, when Fang fled China with his family because he was afraid that he could be arrested for the crimes he committed in the previous years, Fang has been the most outspoken China/Chinese-hater on the internet. As a matter of fact, Fang hates Chinese more than Trump, so he would oppose Trump’s any decision or policy, except for those against China or targeting Chinese^[14]. Ironically, when Fang was in China, he had been pretending that he was a patriot, deeply in love with China “the nation which is not lovable at all.”^[17] In other words, Fang does everything and plays any role according to his personal interest, no exception has ever been found. Right now, Fang lives in a house he purchased in 2013 with dirty money he collected in China^[18].

It is true that Fang “won the 2012 John Maddox Prize;” however, it is absolutely untrue to say that he won the prize “for exposing pseudoscience in China.” The fact is, Fang is the biggest pseudoscientist in China’s history, and many people believe that he is worse than Trofim Lysenko in the former Soviet Union. It has been demonstrated that the only reason for Fang to win the prize was his effort to promote GMO in China: before the prize’s existence, the organizer, a tiny British GMO PR firm called Sense About Science, asked their double or triple agent Mr. Albert Yuan, a U. S. citizen but pretends to be a Chinese journalist with a fake American Ph. D. credential^[19], to nominate Fang^[20], who was struggling in China simply because of his extremely miscalculated war against Mr. Han Han^[21]. After the unheard of prize was announced by journal Nature^[22], many people, including Dr. Root-Bernstein, wrote to the journal to express their resentment and bewilderment. As a matter of fact, I have written 50 open letters to Nature, presenting to them extensively Fang’s dirty, ugly, and evil personal history^[23]. In 2013, I, together with other Chinese people living in Europe, went to Nature’s headquarters in person to present to them an open letter signed by 60 Chinese scholars, along with a 500-page document, to protest Nature’s anti-Nature, anti-Science, anti-Scholarship act^[24]. And to this day, Nature has yet to issue an official response to the overwhelming negative responses to the “prize”; but their lavish and shameless promotion for Fang has been secretly suspended.

Ironically, exactly one hundred years before announcing Fang’s prize, Nature announced the news that “Palæolithic Man” with “extreme antiquity” existed in England^[25]. Of course we now know the so called “Piltdown Man” is an outright and deliberate fraud, fabricated and recognized by the top scientists in the England^[26]. It appears to me that the concurrence of the two announcements was not incidental; rather, it was inevitable, because history has the habit to repeat itself, as someone could never learn.

Centennial Celebration

Left: In December, 1912, journal Nature announced the discovery of the Piltdown Man in England^[25], which would become one of the biggest and the most infamous science scandals in human history^[27]. The inset at the bottom shows the site of excavation and the monument for the discovery ^[28]. Right: In November, 2012, journal Nature announced the news that Fang Shimin had won the inaugural John Maddox prize^[22]. At that time, Fang was the most despicable person in China, and he still is. The inset on the top shows that after being hit by a hammer, Fang revealed his famous 3 wounds by 1 hit to Justice Net, the official website of Supreme Procuratorate of China. The attack triggered the nationwide manhunt supervised by the Ministry of Public Security and their ultimate boss Mr. Zhou Yongkang (the shady person in Fang’s back).

In summary, Mr. Fang Shimin is anything but a “science writer,” all he has been doing in the past two decades, in both China and the United States, could be summarized in one word and one word only—EVILDOING. Therefore, by dragging him into your article to smear China and Chinese people, which appear to be one of your major missions^[29], you are actually showing the world who you really are, because as a proverb goes: Birds of a feather flock together.

By the way, in case you are interested, I am an American citizen and have been studying Fang since 2007. Even though Fang has two legal funds, one in the U. S., one in China, but in the past 14 years he has never found his guts to sue me for defamation, for obvious reasons. On the contrary, Fang has repeatedly called me “renowned Fang Expert” ^[28] and “The Fang Expert-in-Chief”^[29], apparently approving my studies and concurring my major conclusions.

Sincerely yours,

Xin Ge, Ph. D.

Columbia, South Carolina, USA

Notes

[1] The relevant historical facts have been documented in my book “The Feud between Drs. Fang Zhouzi and Xiao Chuanguo” (《方舟子陷害肖傳國始末》), originally uploaded online on September 21, 2010. Its English summary is here: “A list of the facts that Dr. Xiao Chuanguo is a victim of long term character assassination and framing by Fang Zhouzi and his gang of New Threads.” Originally posted on rainbowplan.org on Oct. 13, 2010.

[2] See: The Database of Fang Zhouzi’s Plagiarism. The database was initiated in 2010 by me and continuously updated since then.

[3] The Academic Misconduct Assessment Panels. The Verdicts. China Academic Integrity Review, November 9, 2012. Also see: “The Special Collections of Fang Zhouzi’s Plagiarism Cases” (《方舟子抄襲剽竊專輯》) on China Academic Integrity Review.

[4] In 1995, Fang wrote his first “philosophy of science” article by stealing the main theme of an article written by Dr. Root-Bernstein. 15 years later, the stealing was discovered and exposed by me. Since Fang repeatedly denied the charge, Dr. Root-Bernstein sent a group of people An Open Letter to Shi-Min Fang from Dr. Robert Root-Bernstein on August 3, 2011, which soon appeared on many Chinese websites. Fang first tried to appease Dr. Root-Bernstein by a quasi-apology, and after he failed, he started to attack him, accusing him of ignorance and practicing pseudoscience. For the detailed information about this case, please see my article: Shamelessness Shouldn’t Be Anyone’s Nature──An Open Letter to Nature, Part XXV: Fang’s Plagiarism History: The Michigan State University Case. China Academic Integrity Review, May 19, 2013.

[5] Xin Ge. Fang Zhouzi Plagiarized Dr. Becky Poole of the University of Bristol in 2009. creaders.net, May 28, 2020.

[6] Xin Ge. Fang Zhouzi Plagiarized American “Pseudoscience Fighter” Michael Shermer in 2008. creaders.net, July 14, 2020.

[7] Xin Ge. Fang Zhouzi Plagiarized History Professor Fan Shuzhi of Fudan University in 1997. creaders.net, August 19, 2021.

[8] "when determining plagiarism, the courts in the United States use such an ironclad evidence: the technical errors in the original work, such as citation errors, typos, etc., are also made by the plagiarists."（Fang’s original Chinese: “美國法庭，在認定抄襲時，使用一條鐵證：原作有技術性錯誤的地方（比如引文錯誤、錯別字等），抄襲者也一一跟着犯錯。”方舟子：《郭沫若抄襲錢穆了嗎？》，《新語絲》1999年4期；亦見《書屋》1999年5期19-27頁。）

[9] Xin Ge. Nature Asian-Pacific Correspondent David Cyranoski’s “Brawl in Beijing” Is a Fraudulent and Malicious News Report. China Academic Integrity Review, 07/16/2013 09:01AM.

[10] See Xin Ge’s serial articles: The Hanly War.  China Academic Integrity Review, 06/22/2014 02:30PM.

[11] On April 18, 2014, Mr. Bei Zhicheng, a well-known Chinese celebrity, posted a message on weibo.com, saying that Mr. Cao Yongzheng, Zhou’s most trusted confidant, had told several people that Fang’s attack on Mr. Han Han was ordered by the upper level. See: 2014年04月18日 18:00.

[12] Zhou Yongkang’ arrest was announced by the state media on July 29, 2014; Fang’e social media accounts on China’s internet were wiped out in less than 3 months. When the state media announced the news that Zhou was under investigation, Fang posted a message defending him. He also recorded some people’s ridicules of Zhou, apparently planning to revenge on them later. See my article (in Chinese): 《溷兮龜來，螃蟹蛤蟆》, China Academic Integrity Review, 12/30/2014 10:01AM.

[13] Xin Ge. The Fangangsters (IX): Fang’s Family Army (I): Fang Yunhuan, the Second Sister. China Academic Integrity Review, 04/22/2014 02:48PM.

[14] The examples are too numerous to be listed here. Please read Fang’s twitter, they are almost all in Chinese, though.

[15] “There are only two teachers who have not been vaccinated in an elementary school in Marin County, California. One of them was infected with the coronavirus but he thought it was allergy. He went to class for two days without wearing a mask even he had symptoms. The virus was spread to 26 people, including 12 students in the class. (24 students in total), 6 students from other classes, 4 parents of infected students, and 4 compatriots of infected students. Should such a teacher be expelled?” (See Fang’s twitter, 10:48 PM · Aug 28, 2021.)

[16] Fang’s self-contradictory posts on face mask went viral on weibo.com, see, for example: 2021-8-30 05:58.

[17] See, for example, Fang’s talk on February 1, 2012, on the Phoenix Net. (《方舟子：我的“偏執”你不懂——鳳凰網獨家對話作為一個“人”的方舟子》)

[18] Xin Ge. The Slanderous and Scandalous John Maddox Prize Winner Fang Zhouzi Is Pursued. China Academic Integrity Review, 05/24/2014 08:45AM;The Fraudulent and Criminal John Maddox Prize Winner Fang Zhouzi Commits Perjury, Again! China Academic Integrity Review, 08/10/2014 11:42AM; The Greedy and Greasy John Maddox Prize Winner Fang Zhouzi Is Dunned. China Academic Integrity Review, 03/05/2015 11:06AM;The Fugitive John Maddox Prize Winner Fang Zhouzi’s Fraudulent Fund Is Under Criminal Investigation in China, Again! China Academic Integrity Review, 07/30/2015 11:48AM.

[19] Xin Ge. Who Is Albert Yuan the Nominator? China Academic Integrity Review, 08/04/2013 02:49PM.

[20] Xin Ge. Why Was Albert Yuan Invited to Nominate Fang? China Academic Integrity Review, 08/20/2013 04:28PM.

[21] Xin Ge. Drowning in the Ocean of Scandals. China Academic Integrity Review, 05/08/2015 07:12PM.

[22] Editorial. 2012. John Maddox prize. Nature 491(7423):160.

[23] The general title of the serial letters is “Shamelessness Shouldn’t Be Anyone’s Nature ──An Open Letter to Nature.” The first letter was sent to Nature on November 9, 2012; the last one January 6, 2016. The letters were all sent to Nature’s editor-in-chief via email, and posted on China Academic Integrity Review.

[24] The John Maddox Prize Organizer, Sponsors, and Judges Should Investigate Your Inaugural Winner Fang Shi-min: An Open Letter Signed by 60 Chinese Scholars around the Globe. Delivered in person to the recipients in the United Kingdom on June 28 and July 1, 2013.

[25] Anonymous. 1912. Palæolithic Man. Nature 90(2251):438.

[26] Weiner, J. S, Oakley, K. P, & Le Gros Clark, W. E.1953. The Solution of the Piltdown Problem. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Geology 2:139–146;Oakley, K. P. & Weiner, J. S. 1953. Chemical Examination of the Piltdown Implements. Nature 172(4389):1110.

[27] Anonymous. The 10 Most Incredible Scientific Hoaxes of All Time. theweek.com, January 8, 2015; Beal, N. Five of the Most Famous Scientific Hoaxes. washingtonpost.com, March 2, 2015; McFadden, C. 7 of The Most Famous Scientific Hoaxes of All Time. interestingengineering.com, Mar 20, 2019; Fox, J. What’s the “Greatest” Scientific Fraud of All Time? dynamicecology.wordpress.com, November 2, 2020.

[28] Donovan, S. 2016. The Triumph of the Dawsonian Method. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. 127(1):101-106.

[29] Norton, Ben. US govt-funded Coda Story smears American journalists who undermine new Cold War propaganda. thegrayzone.com, August 18, 2020; US Government-Funded Coda Story Smears American Journalists Who Undermine New Cold War Propaganda. uaposition.com, August 25, 2020.

[30] “著名方學家”，See Fang’s twitter, 10:34 PM · May 24, 2019; 11:42 AM · Jul 19, 2019.

[31] “首席方學家”，See Fang’s posts: May 8, 2015; May 10, 2015.