An online poll conducted by China Youth Daily shows 72.9 percent of the respondents admit to have committed fraud and nearly half (35.6 percent) of those guilty of fraud confirmed that they had done so intentionally。
"It's no longer a secret that you can buy a graduate thesis," said a postgraduate student in Beijing, Li Dawei. "More incredibly, some professors have also bought papers to fake professional titles."
Most of the respondents said the prevalence of such fraud is due to a variety of factors such as people judging others by their income. And they say it is also due to the attraction of the benefits to be gained through fraud, and lenient treatment of those who are found guilty of committing fraud。
Yu Hai, a sociology professor at Fudan University, said "Traditionally, China is a family-oriented society, where people's behavior is bound by their relationship with their family members and acquaintances. But now in an open and changing world, the risks and punishment of fraud are not as severe as they used to be. And this is also to do with a lack of scruples, lack of faith and lack of honesty."
The survey also showed that even though most people are against fraud, as many as 61.7 percent of respondents said they choose to tolerate it when they find that others have cheated. This is apparently because they fear that it is useless to report the fraud - if the possibility of punishment did not deter the perpetrators. In addition, nearly half of the respondents said they were worried about acts of revenge by the perpetrators。
The report released Tuesday is based on a survey of 2485 web users, with 78.8 percent saying that society should have zero tolerance towards fraud. Professor Yu said it is urgent to build systems relying on their credibility in the eye of the general public. "Public institutions must lead the way to say no to fraud and dishonesty."