Some rumors accuse that Xi's doctoral dissertation was "written by others", is that true?
Executive summary
Rumors that Xi Jinping’s doctoral dissertation was “written by others” stem from investigative pieces and allegations pointing to close textual similarities between his 2001 dissertation and earlier works, and to claims that aides or subordinates may have done substantive writing [1] [2]. The sources reviewed document allegations and a broader context of plagiarism and ghostwriting among Chinese elites, but they do not provide an authoritative institutional finding that proves the dissertation was wholly ghostwritten [3] [4].
1. Origins of the allegation: a Hong Kong author and media reproduction
The most specific public allegation cited in available reporting traces to Joe Chung, a Hong Kong author who published claims — later picked up by Asia Sentinel — that passages of Xi’s 2001 Tsinghua doctoral dissertation resembled or duplicated earlier works and that a subordinate, Liu Huiyu, might have been tasked with writing it [1] [2]. Asia Sentinel and outlets that repeated its reporting pointed to overlaps between Xi’s thesis, titled “A Tentative Study on China’s Rural Marketization,” and earlier scholarship such as a 1995 Chinese Academy of Social Sciences publication, but the pieces stop short of presenting an institutional adjudication of misconduct [1] [2].
2. What the evidence in the public record shows — and doesn’t
Open-source reporting documents alleged “close resemblances” and in some cases near–word-for-word passages between the dissertation and prior literature, as described by Asia Sentinel and echoed by other outlets relaying the allegation [2]. Secondary and blog commentary has added color and rumor — including anonymous claims that an underling drafted the thesis and Xi only signed off on edits — but those blogged assertions are not the same as a verified forensic plagiarism report or a university disciplinary finding [5]. The sources provided do not include release of a formal plagiarism-detection analysis carried out or publicly confirmed by Tsinghua University or another neutral forensic reviewer.
3. Broader patterns: official incentives and documented problems with academic integrity
Journalistic and academic reporting places the Xi thesis allegations against a wider problem: an “arms race” of degrees among officials that has produced high-profile copying and academic misconduct in China, as reported by the Financial Times and analyzed in scholarship on academic integrity [3] [4]. These sources establish that plagiarism and degree fraud have been recurring issues in Chinese higher education and officialdom, creating a plausible environment in which irregularities could occur; they do not, however, equate systemic risk with individual guilt in Xi’s specific case without direct proof [3] [4].
4. The politics of suppression and why public proof is scarce
Efforts to question or investigate alleged plagiarism by prominent figures in China face censorship and suppression, a dynamic documented in other cases where researchers and journalists who raised concerns had posts removed or were silenced on platforms like WeChat and Weibo [6]. This reporting helps explain why comprehensive, public, independent probes into politically sensitive dissertations are rare; the available sources show contestation and removal of discussion rather than a transparent adjudication of the Xi thesis allegations [6].
5. Ghostwriting of political works vs. doctoral authorship — related but distinct
There is also reporting and compilation suggesting that many books and political writings attributed to Xi and other senior leaders are produced with substantial assistance or ghostwriters overseen by party intellectuals like Wang Huning, a pattern distinct from the academic question of a doctoral dissertation but relevant to public perception about authorship of elite texts [7]. This differentiates long-standing institutional practices around speeches and books from the narrower claim that a doctoral dissertation was authored entirely by someone else; the sources tie both phenomena to elite media production norms but do not collapse them into a single proven fact about Xi’s doctorate [7].
6. Bottom line: allegations exist; definitive public proof does not appear in these sources
Concisely: multiple outlets and commentators have alleged that Xi’s doctoral thesis contains copied material and that subordinates may have performed substantive writing, and these allegations fit an observable pattern of plagiarism and ghostwriting among Chinese elites reported by journalists and scholars [1] [2] [3] [7]. Yet within the evidence provided there is no citation of a Tsinghua- or third-party forensic finding that conclusively proves the dissertation was written by others, and censorship dynamics make independent verification difficult — a limitation the available reporting itself documents [6] [4].