CHINA: A Chinese professor adopted as the intellectual poster boy of the Communist party has come under fire for plagiarising the work of a dissident jailed by the government in the early 1990s.
Zhou Ye Zhong, a professor at Wuhan University, is credited with much of the inspiration behind the current leadership's new ideological approach, with its emphasis on the "harmonious society".
He has lectured the Politburo and Communist party chief Hu Jintao, and has been at the centre of the party's efforts to square its ideology with formerly taboo topics such as human rights, the rule of law and constitutional government. But his position as Beijing's golden boy was tarnished after he was accused of plagiarism by Wang Tiancheng, a former Beijing University professor who was jailed for five years in 1992 for attempting to form a rival political party.
Mr Wang used an internet discussion board to denounce Mr Zhou's work, and has threatened to take legal action against him if an explanation is not forthcoming. He said his book, The Constitutional Interpretation of Republicanism, was quoted "word for word" in Mr Zhou's recently published works.
"He's risen to the top by repackaging fashionable terms - human rights, democracy, rule of law - for the party's ends," Mr Wang said. "
Mr Zhou has made little attempt to defend himself. However, in a Youth Daily interview, he hinted that because of Mr Wang's history of dissent it was not politically sound for the publishing house to name him in the accreditation notes.