University vice-president accused of graft

A vice-president of Zhejiang University in Hangzhou has been arrested on suspicion of economic crime.

Chu Jian, 50, was arrested one month ago, China Youth Daily reported on Wednesday.

The report has been confirmed by Zhejiang Provincial People's Procuratorate, the local investigation and prosecution body.

The procuratorate did not disclose details of the case, saying only that he was suspected of economic crime, as the investigation was still underway.

Chu Jian was appointed vice-president of Zhejiang University in February 2005. He was also the director of the Institute of Cyber-Systems and Control under the university since 1999, according to the school's website.

Both the university and institute's publicity departments declined to talk about Chu's case on Wednesday.

Insiders said that Chu's case was related to the loss of State assets during the IPO of a company in 2008, the China Youth Daily reported.

So far this year, at least six university presidents have stepped down after being investigated for corruption.

An Xiaoyu, a vice-president of Sichuan University, was investigated for suspected disciplinary violations, the local disciplinary inspection body said last week. Media reported that the case was related to the construction of a new campus for the university.

Last month, Cai Rongsheng, head of student admissions at Renmin University of China, was detained on corruption charges during the student admission process.

At Zhejiang University, where Chu Jian worked, another professor named Chen Yingxu went on trial in March for embezzling more than 10 million yuan ($1.65 million) in research funding by fabricating receipts and contracts. He has yet to be sentenced.

As Zhejiang University has witnessed at least two cases of corruption from its employees, the Party committee and the president of the university should be responsible for the problems, Wang Xuming, a former spokesman at the Ministry of Education, wrote on his micro blog.

"The rise in campus corruption cases is partly because of the highly centralized administration power in the education sector," said Qin Qianhong, a law professor at Wuhan University in Hubei province.

Another reason is that the disciplinary inspection body of the country used to put less importance on the higher education sector, he said.

In recent years, discipline inspection authorities have focused on anti-corruption efforts at universities.

jinhaixing@chinadaily.com.cn