This article will open your eyes to the existence of such a den in higher education institutions. The corresponding Chinese version has gotten more than 50k views and intensively shared in Chinese social media after posted for two weeks. Now, every Chinese in GTIIT knows that.
Abstract
To mimic Western institutions as much as possible, the Chinese government granted GTIIT special autonomous privileges, e.g., academics, network, and law enforcement. Since its establishment in 2015, GTIIT had undergone a rapid decline. In May 2020, an Indian-origin food scientist, Ashok Patel, was murdered, and later the truth became known to many staff and students. However, due to GTIIT’s privileges, the university initially claimed he died of a heart attack and later stated he died due to depression. Some discovered that such a prominent scholar could be killed and that the university was able to suppress the news. This led some to hope to join the criminal group and partake in the wrongdoing. This marked the beginning of the spread of a criminal culture. Subsequently, many teachers died. GTIIT has been implicated in the deaths of teachers, but not limited to those who previously worked in Institute of Chemical Technology, India, Piramal Healthcare Ltd, India, Unilever R&D, Netherlands, Ghent university, Belgium, International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, Portugal, University of Goettingen, Germany, Hahn-Meitner Institute, Germany, Argonne National Laboratory, USA, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Australia, the City University of Hong Kong, China, and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel. Additionally, students have become bullies. Since 2020, instances of school bullying at GTIIT have become frequent and relentless. Students have become adept at bullying, creating a toxic environment that has significantly affected many individuals.
In mid-January 2023, another key event occurred at GTIIT: Chancellor Xin-gao Gong was elected as a deputy to the 14th National People’s Congress https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzI1NjY0NTMyNA==&mid=2247535788&idx=1&sn=fefe0fdae7a7f37abb5e5c7ce82443a1&scene=21&token=623651081&lang=zh_CN#wechat_redirect. This incident directly prompted GTIIT to transform into an international criminal center. Previously, GTIIT’s privileges were mainly limited to the institution itself. There were still ways to address them. For example, theoretically, the Chinese government could arrest Xin-gao Gong and then arrest people related to GTIIT’s crimes. However, according to Chinese law, the arrest of a national deputy must be approved by the National People’s Congress https://www.gjxfj.gov.cn/gjxfj/fgwj/flfg/webinfo/2014/05/1601761496874634.htm. The original purpose of this law is to protect the deputies. However, in China, there are often reports about deputies violating the law, and while the police may have enough evidence, they can hardly arrest those deputies under the law. Instead, they can only seek help from public opinion. Since March 2023, GTIIT has organized and funded students and teachers to expand illegal and criminal activities beyond its campus and into other cities in China, and since May 2023, to other countries. It has now become a well-known international criminal center led by Gang Leader Xin-gao Gong and Attempted Murderer Yigal Achmon. One for the crimes in China, the other for the crimes overseas. The illegal and criminal activities include, but are not limited to, fraud, spreading rumors, coercion, extortion, Internet hacking, murder, and more. They systematically coerce professors from other universities to provide convenience and support for their further studies, research, etc. Also, GTIIT systematically changed the transcripts of many GTIIT students for gaining better application results and lower delaying rate. Not limited to that, they even tried to plagiarize many scholars’ papers, including me.
I publicly started to refute the rumors created by Yigal Achmon in August 2024 and gained a lot of support. Yigal Achmon was originally teaching in China during the summer semester, but he immediately put down his work and left China after I returned on August 14th. It has been two and a half months now, and the fall semester has already started for one month; he has courses at GTIIT. However, he is still unwilling to come back to GTIIT. There is really nothing we can do about it at this stage. So I can only called for your support. Of course, resorting to public opinion is not immediately effective. Friends of Ashok Patel tried it on Twitter and Facebook in 2020, and also wrote various letters, but in the end they failed to launch an investigation. Now I’m here to take over the work, and I will do it better.
Introduction
Guangdong Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT) is a Sino-foreign cooperative educational institution established by Shantou University (STU) and Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) with independent legal status. https://www.gtiit.edu.cn/en/about-us.aspx It has its own members. To mimic the Western institutions as much as possible, the Chinese government gave GTIIT special autonomous privilege, e.g., academics, network, and law enforcement. Shantou University is a Top 100 university in China. Technion is a world-class research university known for its professionalism, rigor, and engineering spirit. However, GTIIT is a well-known international criminal center.
Students and faculty at GTIIT are now desperately trying to dissociate themselves from this international criminal center, while a few individuals with numerous offenses continue to spread rumors online, aiming to perpetuate the evils of this criminal center.
GTIIT’s development can be roughly divided into five phases: from establishment to signs of decline (2015 December-2020 May), spread of criminal culture (2020-early 2022), a trust crisis where everyone felt threatened (early 2022-October 2022), transformation into a criminal hub (October 2022-March 2023), and transformation into an international criminal center (March 2023-present).
From Establishment To Signs of Decline (2015 December-2020 May)
Superior Initial Lineup
When GTIIT was established, the conditions were very favorable. Both central and local Chinese governments, as well as international stakeholders, provided top support to GTIIT. The first Chancellor, Li Jian‘ge, previously served as the chairman of China International Capital Corporation, which enabled him to secure significant backing and special permissions from the central government. Locally, Guangdong’s GDP is the highest in China, but its education system is much weaker compared to other economically strong provinces in China like Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu. As a result, the Guangdong government was very enthusiastic about establishing new universities and provided substantial financial support to GTIIT. Shantou’s economy has struggled, with many outdated ideas prevailing. Many people in Shantou were hopeful that GTIIT could help drive the upgrade of local industries. GTIIT also benefits from educational resources from Technion, which has significant influence overseas. The founding team of GTIIT has an overwhelming advantage compared to neighboring Shantou University. GTIIT is a small special autonomous zone with many privileges, e.g., academically. network, and law enforcement. Academically, the Education Bureau cannot interfere with GTIIT’s teaching activities. In GTIIT, students and teachers can visit many websites that are highly illegal in China, e.g., some porn website. In terms of law enforcement, unless GTIIT consents, the police cannot arrest GTIIT professors who commit crimes. It is generally not regulated by the Chinese government. The two major advantages of highly autonomous zone and strong financial support allowed GTIIT to attract a group of outstanding talents when it was established.
For example, Mario Lanza, who previously hold an associate position at Soochow University, made some key innovations in memristors, which could potentially address the high energy consumption issues of current artificial intelligence. He joined GTIIT’s Materials Science and Engineering program in 2018 while retaining his position at Soochow University.
Ashok Patel was formerly a professor at Ghent University in Belgium before joining the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory in Portugal https://www.inl.int/our-farewell-to-ashok-patel/. He is an expert in modifying the structure of edible oils and focuses on using underutilized food-grade materials to create new soft matter systems to address food production challenges. He joined GTIIT’s Biotechnology and Food Engineering program in 2017 and received the Timothy L. Mounts Award, a top award in the field of lipid, in 2020.
Frank Klose worked at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation and served as a visiting professor at City University of Hong Kong for three years, specializing in data storage materials. He joined GTIIT’s Materials Science and Engineering program in 2017.
Jiaping Chen, an expert in environmental chemistry, was previously a faculty member at the National University of Singapore. He joined GTIIT’s Chemical Engineering department in 2019.
Udi Sarig conducted research on cardiac tissue engineering at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore before becoming an assistant professor in GTIIT’s Biotechnology and Food Engineering program in 2018.
Daoud Bshouty was a professor at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology before joining GTIIT’s Mathematics with Computer Science program in 2018, while still holding his position in Israel.
Regarding students, GTIIT’s first admission scores in 2017 were relatively high. Applicants were required to have an English score of at least 120. In 2017, the highest score for admissions in Guangdong province in China was 604, the lowest was 509, and the average score was 539, this score is about the top 5% students in Guangdong province.
In the second year, 2018, the highest admission score in Guangdong was 601, the lowest was 507, and the average score was 543, this score slighlt lower than last year, still about the top 5% students in Guangdong province. The average score for admissions at that time was comparable to that of the top 100 universities in China, while the highest scores were similar to those of top 50 universities in China.
Issues Arise
After these professors joined GTIIT, they began setting up their own laboratories. However, they soon encountered the first problem: the construction progress of the laboratory building did not match what had been promised to the professors. Before joining GTIIT, these professors had their own laboratories, and they halted their previous research to come to GTIIT. Naturally, they hoped to have their laboratories completed as soon as possible to resume their research. In reality, the laboratories for this first group of professors were not basically completed until 2020. This delay cost many professors two to three years of research time; during this period, they could only engage in some teaching work and continue collaborating with their former colleagues on publications.
As for the students, they also found that GTIIT was not as ideal as they had imagined, leading many to consider transferring. I was admitted to GTIIT in 2018 with a score of 547 (top 5%), and upon arrival, I heard senior students complaining about various issues, from the bad food quality in the canteen to the unpleasant attitudes of some student affairs staff. At the time, I thought I could accept these problems. It wasn’t until I had been there for over six months that I gradually realized the severity of these issues exceeded my expectations. The food quality in GTIIT canteen was not only unappetizing in taste but, starting in 2020, there were frequent reports of people getting sick, diarrhea, after eating there, indicating serious food safety problems.
I myself don’t eat takeout. After eating in the canteen at GTIIT for a year, I mostly cook for myself in my dorm or go to the snack street next to the school or the canteen at STU. After the dormitory style changed in 2020, I moved out to rent a room. At first, I had groceries delivered every day to cook for myself, but later I got busy and didn’t have time. I usually had a burger at McDonald’s in the morning and went to a nearby restaurant, Tuo Da Lian Beef City, for Chaoshan beef kway teow in the evening. In the fall of 2022, due to the pandemic, I stopped dining in and started picking up burgers, soy milk, and youtiao from McDonald every morning. In the evenings, I would bike to Chaoshan Fourth Beef Hotpot restaurant to take out beef kway teow.
Additionally, GTIIT conducts its courses in English, and the difficulty level is comparable to the top 100 universities in China, which makes it hard for many students to adapt, resulting in a high fail rate. The courses in GTIIT are much easier than those in Technion, because Technion taught in Hebrew, and GTIIT taught in English, so the exams are not the same. However, unlike universities in the UK and the US, students cannot take lower-level courses to graduate; most courses are mandatory. Moreover, most students enter with scores typical of top 100 universities in China, so learning courses at that level in a non-native language puts a lot of pressure on them.
However, most students at GTIIT do not have a strong English. GTIIT has a requirement for English scores in the entrance exam, Gaokao, which must be above 80% of the full score. All students were much better than most Chinese high school students in English. This score indicates that GTIIT students could pass the CET-4 exam even before enrollment, and many could pass CET-6. These students would generally be among the best at other universities in English. However, after two to three years study at GTIIT, most students’ writing and speaking skills in English have not improved. Achieving the required IELTS or TOEFL scores for graduate school is very challenging for them. For example, one of my former roommates started taking the IELTS in his sophomore year. He said he scored 5.5 on speaking twice. Later, he enrolled in an expensive tutoring IELTS course for a summer, which seemed to help him a bit. I was shocked to hear this, as he was getting 85 grades in regular classes taught in English. I couldn’t understand why he couldn’t pass the IELTS. After doing a mock exam with him face-to-face, I realized that he made many grammatical errors when speaking, making it impossible for him to succeed. In general, most students need to spend extra money on English tutoring outside of class to pass the IELTS.
Additionally, there are many unexpected issues at the university. At GTIIT, in 2017, the plan was to enroll 240 mainland students and 60 international students, but only 222 mainland students applied with no international students, and only 216 actually enrolled. In 2018, they planned to enroll 290 students, but only 275 applied, with 263 actually enrolled. This means that in 2018, GTIIT had fewer than 500 students. Even now, there are only a thousand students and just over a hundred teachers, which is comparable to the number of students in one grade at my high school. Due to its small size, GTIIT struggles to organize interesting activities. For instance, in the fall of 2018 and spring of 2019, they hosted two concerts, but there have been no more since then due to the high costs spread across too few attendees. Many activities and facilities available at larger schools simply don’t exist at GTIIT. At that time, the most common form of entertainment at GTIIT was weekly Bollywood dance classes taught by Prof. Ashok Patel.
Advantages
Of course, GTIIT also has its advantages.
1，Rich: Israeli professors receive preferential treatment when applying for funding in China. Both central and local Chinese governments have provided significant financial support to GTIIT, much better than STU and other Chinese universities. Also, the tuition of GTIIT is also relatively high, 95,000 RMB per year, compared to those of other Chinese universities and Chinese annual income. The salary of an assistant professor at GTIIT earns about one million RMB (150k dollars) annually, while associate and full professors start at around two million RMS (300k dollars) annually. This salary is not only much much higher than that of other universities in China but also ranks among the highest or near highest internationally, to my knowledge. GTIIT offers scholarships ranging from 30,000 to 100,000 RMB annually to about 30-50% of its students (when I enrolled, there were no scholarships available, I received a first-class scholarship of 100,000 RMB in my first year and none afterward). GTIIT is also quite generous with student activities; for instance, I heard that when the student council wanted to organize a small event, the school quickly approved a budget of 10,000 RMB. This financial support allowed GTIIT to host a lavish event in the fall of 2018, bringing in a band from Israel to perform a concert for a few hundred people. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/91pcOyxEXteW0jb1e_QYcQ Additionally, the GTIIT dormitories were excellent, with two-person rooms equipped with microwaves, washing machines, and dryers. The good living conditions were a significant reason I chose to apply to GTIIT, as my health condition was poor at the time and needed a relatively quiet environment.
2, Freedom: GTIIT operates with a high degree of autonomy, which means it is not regulated by the Chinese government. Professors at GTIIT enjoy a high level academic freedom. This academic freedom is not limited to the content of their courses is free from administrative interference (in China, for engineering and science programs, administrative interference is rare now), or give students any grades, but rather that professors have absolute power, and can direct student affairs’ actions, e.g., teachers can expel a student from a course without any legitamate reasons, can leak exam questions to the students they prefer. This aspect can be attractive to some professors.
There are students sharing such things in the Chinese social media, e.g., Zhihu (知乎). https://www.zhihu.com/question/441439268
For students, attending classes at GTIIT used to be quite relaxed; there was no need to check in or sign attendance for most courses, as final grades were largely determined by final exams. Besides laboratory classes, I only went to class when I need to do student presentations in the class; most of the time, I stayed in my room. I typically attended one or two classes a week, and seldom did the homework. Before and after the pandemic, it was common for GTIIT students to skip classes to travel, and students also enjoyed a great deal of freedom.
3, Support from the Technion: The Technion is a worldclass university focusing on science and technology with a strong network in US. Initially, the Technion provided significant support to GTIIT. For example, the Technion originally had separate Hebrew and English teaching programs, with Israeli students learning in Hebrew and international students in English. After GTIIT was established, the corresponding English program at the Technion was shut down to avoid competition. Additionally, many Technion professors joined GTIIT, e.g., Daoud Bshouti, Moshe Sheintuch, Moshe Eizenberg, Noam Soker, Sima Yaron, and Eli Adjadeff.
Signs of Decline
Professors at GTIIT enjoy both abundant financial resources and strong power, making their conditions much better than those at other universities in China. However, these advantages are generally insufficient to offset GTIIT’s disadvantages. GTIIT’s funding primarily comes from the Chinese government and students. If it fails to produce notable results in the future, there’s no guarantee that the Chinese government will continue to provide such support. Since 2019, GTIIT is like a patient in the ICU: still maintaining a semblance of stability due to ongoing expenditures, but vulnerable to rapid decline if funding decreases even slightly, which could lead to a chain reaction.
Starting in the fall of 2019, many GTIIT faculties began to resign. Chancellor Li Jian’ge also left after his term ended in December 2019, without a successor appointed at the time. It wasn’t until January 2020 that a vice president from Shantou University was appointed as acting Chancellor. During this period, GTIIT was in a state of power vacuum. It wasn’t until March 2021 that Xin-gao Gong took over as Chancellor.
Li Jian’ge had been looking for a successor since at least 2018, it took three years to find one for GTIIT. Typically, the Chancellor of a Sino-foreign cooperative university needs to be a CAS, CAE, or CASS member or similar level, and there are about 2,000-3000 qualified individuals in China. Over three years, Li Jian’ge and Technion’s network must have approached nearly all of these individuals, yet no one was willing to take on the role. In contrast, Chancellors at other Sino-foreign universities are highly competitive, as they come with both abundant financial resources and strong power.
Why is this the case? Because people at that level are extremely smart and understand just how difficult it is to address GTIIT’s challenges and even so, they might not get any good feedback. Ultimately, Xin-gao Gong took on this role, and soon after, issues arose again.
Before Li Jian’ge’s departure, although there were some unsatisfactory aspects at GTIIT, I felt it was manageable as I seldom interacted with GTIIT. My main concern was the future. However, after his departure, GTIIT quickly descended into chaos.
Starting at the end of January 2020, GTIIT decided to convert the dormitories from double occupancy to triple occupancy without informing the students. It’s important to note that the rooms were designed for two people, and converting them to triples resulted in a cramped environment where even the desk and bad was separate. The overall experience was even worse than that of four-person bunk beds at other Chinese universities. Students raised their questions in Zhihu, and got a lot of support. https://www.zhihu.com/question/403763548 (How should we evaluate the decision by the GTIIT to change the accommodation from double rooms to triple rooms without informing students (which began at the end of January)?) At that time, during the COVID-19 pandamic, all students stayed in home for the 2020 Spring and Summer semester.
The better living condition was a core reason for students applied GTIIT, some students cannot tolerant due to their health conditions. The change of dormitory is a breach of promise made during enrollment. The reason for this breach of promise made during enrollment was primarily due to unfinished dormitory construction and GTIIT’s desire to increase enrollment. The rediculuous outcome was that although they planned to enroll more than 300 students, in fact, fewer than 200 students enrolled in 2020, because only those students applied, leaving many dorms empty after the change. Despite this, the school forced students to squeeze into triple rooms while many others remained vacant.
In the begining of 2020 Fall semester, students came back to the university, I rented a room behind McDonald’s, about two kilometers away from GTIIT, and only returned to campus once or twice a week.
This marks the first stage: from establishment to the signs of decline.
The Spread of Criminal Culture (2020 May-early 2022)
Death of Prof. Ashok Patel
On May 7, 2020, a key event occurred at GTIIT, Prof. Ashok Patel was murdered. This ushered in the second stage: the spread of criminal culture. At that time, the office of undergraduate studies suddenly announced that Prof. Ashok Patel had resigned, with no further details provided.
On May 2020, He was teaching a food chemistry course to 2018 cohort Biotechnology and Food Engineering students, including me. There were videos about his courses in Moodle. After the school suddenly informed students that he resigned on May 7th, 2020, all his videos were removed, and course was cancelled on May 8th, 2020.
On May 10th, 2020, the UG suddenly informed us that the course was reopened and would be taught by Yigal Achmon.
Then, Yigal Achmon uploaded previous recorded lecture of Prof. Ashok Patel on May 11th, 2020.
Then, on May 16th, there were news about his death posted in Facebook, and the students in GTIIT started to realize his death. https://www.facebook.com/prashokgoa
Then, some of the students shared this news to others, so the WeChat groups started to spread the news of his death on May 17, 2020. Someone said that his body was found in the dormitory and he already died for several days, so the exact time of his death was unknown. According to related news, he died at about May 8-10th, 2020, immediately after the school suddenly informed students that he resigned and before Yigal Achmon inherited his course.
Then, the UG re-cancelled the course on May 17th, 2020.
The school didn’t say anything about Prof. Ashok Patel’s death, someone in WeChat group started to say that he suicided, not resigned.
He was only 38 years old, and a really kind guy with high EQ and often invited students to his parties and shared the food he made. I don’t know how he offended those people.
After his sudden death, in summer 2020, Prof. Ashok Patel’s families and friends were questioning his death in Facebook and Twitter.
However, as previously mentioned, GTIIT operates somewhat like a special zone; any incidents of illegal or criminal activities are subject to investigation solely by GTIIT’s administration. Consequently, this matter was suppressed. There is completely no official memories or obituary about Prof. Ashok Patel‘s death in GTIIT, while his former institution, International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, posted “Our farewell to Ashok Patel” at May 21, 2020. https://inl.int/our-farewell-to-ashok-patel/ American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS) also posted an Memorial and Recognition for him. “AOCS still wanted to recognize his accomplishments as a winner of the Edible Applications Technology Division’s 2020 Timothy L. Mounts Award, which recognizes research related to the science and technology of edible oils or derivatives in food products”. https://www.lipidsfatsoilssurfactantsohmy.com/2020/07/memorial-and-recognition-of-ashok-patel.html
In July 2020, rumors began circulating on Zhihu regarding Prof. Ashok Patel’s suicide due to depression; that answer has been deleted. The related rumors were then shared across various WeChat groups.
I was puzzled for a long time because Prof. Ashok Patel, being an Indian and a raising star in lipid science with three published books and top awards in the field, had extensive connections in academia. I thought to myself that such a person would be unlikely to be murdered. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/zCsAHf_QGTFMQSYKQlP7JQ In China, if a Chinese kills a foreigner, then, no matter how powerful they is, even the relative of a national leader, they will face consequences, e.g., Gu Kailai killed British businessman Neil Heywood in the end of 2011. In 2012, Gu was given a suspended death sentence.
It wasn’t until recently, the end of September 2024, while studying the common symptoms of depression and reflecting on friends I knew who had experienced it, that I realized Prof. Ashok Patel likely did not have depression. He was a very optimistic and cheerful person, and from my interactions with him, I didn’t observe any symptoms of depression. Initially, I thought he might have been managing it well with medication, but after I learned that even with medication, there are still noticeable differences in depressive symptoms.
When I revisited the chat records from the GTIIT parents chat group at the end of September, I found that the GTIIT’s initial explanation for his death in May, 2020, was a heart attack. Many questioned this explanation, noting that Prof. Ashok Patel frequently danced and ran, indicating he was in good health. It was only in July, 2020, that rumors about depression began to circulate.
In April 2020, I was hospitalized with infective endocarditis and subsequently underwent related treatment. As a result, I wasn’t closely following these discussions and didn’t notice those irregularities at the time. https://www.zhihu.com/question/425406978/answer/4385963912
Spread of a Criminal Culture
In fact, by this time, there were three groups of people at GTIIT.
The first group consisted of those who discovered that such a prominent scholar as Ashok Patel could be killed and that the university was able to suppress the news. This led them to hope to join the criminal group and go along with the wrongdoing. This marked the beginning of the spread of a criminal culture.
Teachers have became murderers. By 2021, there were three publicly verifiable cases of unusual deaths at GTIIT. One of them was Frank Klose, a materials scientist who had joined GTIIT with his wife, Christine Rehm, who was also a materials scientist. Since 2021, there has been no news about them, raising suspicions that the entire family was murdered.
In the comments section, someone mentioned that there was a paper on Arxiv in June 2024, but in reality, this paper was published in 2020. It was just re-uploaded to Arxiv by his former colleague, Kirrily Rule, in 2024. Two-Dimensional Magnets: Forgotten History and Recent Progress towards Spintronic Applications Two dimensional magnets: Forgotten history and recent progress towards spintronic applications
As for Christine Rehm, there has been no news either. Although there was a paper published in 2023 with her name on it, that work was done several years prior. In nuclear physics, it’s quite common for research to take years to get published, which doesn’t necessarily mean she is still alive.
Additionally, there was a lecturer who was from the Taub Faculty of Computer Science, Technion, Israel Gutter. He joined GTIIT before 2019 and taught computer courses in the GTIIT Mathematics with Computer Science program and Python for other GTIIT programs. He suddenly passed away on December 20, 2021, at just over sixty years old (I don’t know the exact age). GTIIT claimed it was due to a heart attack, but he was generally in good health, and I am quite knowledgeable about cardiovascular diseases; I can confirm he did not have coronary heart disease. He was well-loved by students, and many mourned his passing. GTIIT hold a official memory for him, and the Taub Faculty of Computer Science in Technion also posted a memory. https://cs.technion.ac.il/news/view-new.php?nwid=1273 His only flaw was that he spoke quite directly and didn’t always pick up on social cues, which led to him being single his entire life. Yet, having lived so long in Israel, how could he die after only three years at GTIIT?
Last week, after I questioned his death in a post on WeChat, a video of him “wishing everyone a Happy New Year” posted by GTIIT was taken down. https://www.gtiit.edu.cn/viewNews.aspx?flowNo=774
Students have become bullies. Since 2020, instances of school bullying on GTIIT have become frequent and relentless. This ongoing issue has led several of my classmates to feel compelled to deactivate their WeChat accounts. Students have become adept at bullying, creating a toxic environment that has significantly affected many individuals.
I was also affected; I was stalked and secretly filmed. I learned from classmates that the direct cause started in September 2021. At that time, my iPhone SE’s screen cracked, and I didn’t replace it, so I had been using that broken iPhone for over a year. Someone saw my damaged phone and suspected that my financial situation was poor, thinking I couldn’t even afford a new one. However, the truth is, I bought an iPhone 13 mini on November 13, 2021; I just hadn’t used it at all. This is mainly because I didn’t use my phone much anyway and I didn’t care whether it’s broken or not.
At that time, slandering boys on the Internet was very popular in China. Some female classmates on my list also joined in and slandered me behind my back. It seems that there were other negative things as well. In the past, I’ve generally ignored situations like this, similar to that female student mentioned earlier.
Some students have tried to report it to the police, but it seems ineffective. The police’s inability to address the rampant illegal activities at GTIIT has further fueled bullying behavior.
The tragedies at GTIIT are very similar to the tragedy of Mutiny on Lurongyu 2682 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutiny_on_Lurongyu_2682 or Stanford prison experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment ; both expose the darker side of human nature in environments without law enforcement or regulation. Those involved in these criminal groups often commit crimes or even murder over tiny disputes.
Massive leave
The second group believed that Prof. Ashok Patel had been murdered and wanted to distance themselves from GTIIT. This led to a wave of students termination and faculty resignment.
For example, around that time, there were responses on Zhihu that hinted at his death is due to murder: “There was also a professor in the biology department, known for his excellent reputation and holding the highest administrative rank among those permanently stationed in China, who committed suicide in mid-May. The news was, of course, strictly suppressed. May he rest in peace; there is no intention to offend. However, what could have been the reason?” https://www.zhihu.com/question/36829887/answer/1311875160
The professor mentioned earlier, Mario Lanza, suddenly resigned in the fall of 2020. He had bought a state-of-the-art microscope worth over 100 million RMB at the end of 2018 http://www.wise-creative.com.cn/cms/a/184.html . He later joined King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and published an important paper in Nature in 2023. He joined the National University of Singapore this year.
Udi Sarig also resigned in the spring of 2021. He had purchased a large amount of equipment in 2020 and recruited many students, just starting to conduct experiments. At that point, he found a lecturer position at the Adelson School of Medicine, Ariel University in Israel and immediately resigned. This indicates that many teachers at GTIIT viewed a lecturer position at Ariel University as much better than an assistant professor position at GTIIT. https://www.gtiit.edu.cn/viewNews_662.aspx
At that time, I heard about their departures and felt that, morally, it was not very justified. Of course, changing the affiliation is normal, but GTIIT had invested a lot in them, and they also waited for two to three years with their labs finally established and equipment ready, it seemed unreasonable for them to leave just as they were about to start experiments. It wasn’t until last month that I learned they had essentially fled for their lives, and could hardly concern any other issues.
Jiaping Chen went to Shenzhen University. After leaving GTIIT, most of these professors tried to erase their experiences in GTIIT and distance themselves from it. Those professors from Technion who joined GTIIT also resigned and returned to Israel. Among the six previously mentioned—Daoud Bshouti, Moshe Sheintuch, Moshe Eizenberg, Noam Soker, Sima Yaron, and Eli Adjadeff—Daoud Bshouti, Noam Soker, and Sima Yaron have all resigned and returned to Israel.
Before this shift, various leaders could still be seen on campus frequently, but afterward, they were rarely seen, appearing only at important ceremonies. Technion largely stopped intervening the issues in GTIIT afterward. GTIIT effectively achieved a high degree of autonomy, becoming a zone where no one outside was in charge (the government, Technion, and Shantou University all disengaged).
How many students have left GTIIT? According to the ‘GTIIT Undergraduate Teaching Quality Report’ and related admission data, https://www.gtiit.edu.cn/viewNews_291.aspx .
In 2017, GTIIT planned to enroll 240 mainland students and 60 international students, but only 222 mainland students applied and no international students applied, with 216 students enrolled. Thus, the initial number for the 2017 cohort was 216. In 2018, the total registered number was 216; in 2019, it was 212; in 2020, it was 205; in 2021, it was 197, with 147 graduating in 2021. In 2022, the total registered number was 50, and in 2023, the total registered number for the 2017 and 2018 cohorts was 82.
In 2018, GTIIT planned to enroll 290 students, but only 275 applied, with 263 enrolled. Thus, the initial number for the 2018 cohort was 263. In 2019, the total registered number was 263; in 2020, it was 258; in 2021, it was 254; in 2022, it was 250, with 196 graduating in 2022. In 2023, the total registered number for the 2017 and 2018 cohorts was 82.
In 2019, GTIIT planned to enroll 300 students, but only 281 applied, with 266 enrolled. Thus, the initial number for the 2019 cohort was 266. In 2019, the total registered number was 263; in 2020, it was 251; in 2021, it was 244; in 2022, it was 240; in 2023, the registered number was 227, with 211 graduating in 2023. In 2023, the total registered number for the 2019 cohort was 16.
In 2020, GTIIT planned to enroll 410 students, but only 219 applied, with 185 enrolled. Additionally, there were 115 students enrolled outside the plan, with 27 reporting. Thus, the initial number for the 2020 cohort was 212. In 2021, the total registered number was 193; in 2022, it was 186; and in 2023, it was 157. In 2024, over 100 students graduated, but the specific number has not been disclosed.
In 2021, GTIIT planned to enroll 420 students, but only 308 applied, with 252 enrolled. Additionally, there were 59 students enrolled outside the plan, with the actual reporting number unknown. In 2022, the total registered number was 247; in 2023, it was 204.
In 2022, GTIIT planned to enroll 420 students, but only 218 applied, with 206 enrolled. Additionally, there were 260 students enrolled outside the plan, with 100 reporting. Thus, the initial number for the 2022 cohort was 306. In 2023, the total registered number for the 2022 cohort was 203.
In 2023, GTIIT planned to enroll 445 students, but only 536 applied, with 511 enrolled. Thus, the initial number for the 2023 cohort was 511.
The above data is sourced from official GTIIT publications and is publicly verifiable. I have separated the situation for each cohort and have not included those who graduated after delaying their studies.
The total number of students who reported from the 2017 to 2022 cohorts is 1,388, and as of 2023, the cumulative number of students who dropped out from freshman to senior year is 277, resulting in a dropout rate of approximately 20%. Additionally, the delaying rate for the 2017 and 2018 cohorts is around 20%, while for the 2019 cohort, by the time of graduation in 2023, many students were coerced by Yigal Achmon to spread rumors, leading GTIIT to alter transcripts and reducing the delaying rate to 5%. Consequently, the student graduation rate significantly increased for the 2019 cohort.
Among these students, some struggled with English-taught courses and transferred to relatively low rank universities, while many others, who were exceptionally talented and received substantial scholarships, later transferred to well-known universities abroad. However, they are all running for their lives and future and the mood is the same.
It should also be noticed that, in GTIIT, many students’ families are not very rich, as the admission team of GTIIT often said those misleading words. This dropout rate is normal in US or Europe, however, in Europe, the tuition is cheap, similar to other Chinese universities, so even the students dropout, they won’t feel lost a lot of money. In US, people are much richer, and students generally have such preparation for a high dropout rate, and they can easily find another university which is willing to accept them. However, this is not the case in GTIIT. For those students from poor families and dropout, GTIIT basically destroyed their lives. In other similar universities in China, the admission team normally will highlight the current and future tuition and related risk.
Previously, GTIIT’s admission scores in Guangdong Province had been declining for years, with the average admission score for the 2017 cohort being top 4%, top 5% for the 2018 cohort, and top 7% for the 2019 cohort. The average score for the 2020 cohort has not been disclosed, but the lowest score was 433 points, below top 50%, the average score should be around top 10%. This situation is the same for 2021 and 2022 cohort. However, by 2023, the average score up to 5-7% and in 2024, further up to 4-5%, essentially returning to the levels of the 2017 and 2018 cohorts.
Many GTIIT students have had similar experiences: they have friends who took the entrance examination at the same time and scored similarly to theirs went to another Chinese universities, while they chose GTIIT. The former enjoys a comfortable life, while GTIIT students struggle, facing issues from stomach problems to moving dormitories. When GTIIT students started working in the lab with their professors, it wasn’t long before the professor either resigned or left unexpectedly (50% chances). Meanwhile, other students graduated smoothly, spending tens of thousands to apply for graduate studies at top 100 universities, while GTIIT students spent 400,000 RMB on tuition but still couldn’t graduate on time, needing to spend more on application guidance. Near graduation, they were even deceived out of 100 RMB by a former teacher they knew, making it difficult for them to maintain a positive mindset under such circumstances.
This is also one of the reasons for the frequent bullying at GTIIT, as many students are under significant pressure, not living in a normal environment, and lacking proper education in values. Moreover, after enduring hardships, they fail to gain admission to better schools and experience widespread delays in graduation, making it even easier for their mental state to deteriorate.
As for the situation regarding faculty turnover at GTIIT, I cannot obtain complete data and can only conduct sample surveys. For example, in 2018, the biology department at GTIIT had four faculty members: Ashok Patel, Udi Sarig, Yigal Achmon, and Ka Yin Leung, who were all permanently stationed at GTIIT. Other faculty members were either not professors, were lecturers, or were visiting professors from other institutions for only one semester. Among these four, Ashok Patel and Udi Sarig have resigned, while Ka Yin Leung initially intended to retire in 2021 but has continued to work for unknown reasons. Based on this sample, the faculty turnover rate over four years is 50%.
In fact, I conducted a larger-scale survey myself (nearly 100 people, with a long list of names, which I won’t detail here, accounting for about 60% of the total). I found that the turnover rate for teachers who joined GTIIT from 2017 to 2019 is approximately 57%. For those who joined in 2020, the turnover rate is around 23%, which subsequently decreases year by year. After all, it takes time for teachers to realize the various issues at GTIIT before they decide to leave. Most of these individuals completely erase their experience at GTIIT from their resumes after leaving, as GTIIT has no direct contribution to their research. Of course, staff turnover is normal, but it is unusual for departing employees to harbor significant resentment towards their former institution and to try their best to distance themselves from it; such a situation is generally not typical.
The Resume of Mario Lanza
The turnover rate of the management at GTIIT is even more astonishing. In universities in Europe and the United States, the term for management is four years, while in Chinese universities, it is generally five years. GTIIT, being a Sino-foreign cooperative university, adopts the term system of European and American universities. Generally speaking, if a manager is willing to hold the position, they will serve at least two terms, which is eight years. Even less, how many people have completed a full four-year term at GTIIT? You can refer to the list of past management personnel published on the official GTIIT website. https://www.gtiit.edu.cn/en/former-management-team.aspx
| Chancellor： | |
| Li Jian’ge | 2015.12 – 2019.12 |
| Liu Wenhua (Acting Chancellor) | 2020.01 – 2021.03 |
| Gong Xingao | 2021.03 – present |
| Vice Chancellor： | |
| Aaron Ciechanover | 2015.12 – 2018.12 |
| Eliezer Shalev | 2018.12 – 2021.04 |
| David Gershoni | 2021.04 – present |
| Pro-Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs： | |
| Eliezer Shalev | 2017.01 – 2021.04 |
| Wayne David Kaplan | 2021.07 – 2022.07 |
| Moris Eisen | 2022.07 – present |
| Technion Liaison Officer of GTIIT: | |
| Paul Feigin | 2015.12 – 2018.02 |
| Special Envoy of the Technion President to GTIIT: | |
| Aaron Ciechanover | 2018.12 – present |
| Pro-Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs: | |
| Feng Xinglei | 2016.06 – 2018.03 |
| Lin Danming | 2018.03 – present |
| Pro-Vice Chancellor & Director General: | |
| Moshe Marom | 2015.12 – 2017.10 |
| Yigal Cohen | 2017.10 – 2019.10 |
| Naama Avrahami | 2019.10 – 2019.12 |
| Eran Galor | 2021.04 – 2022.08 |
| Yigal Cohen | 2022.08 – present |
| Pro-Vice Chancellor for Development: | |
| Queena Yi | 2023.09 – present |
| Dean of Graduate Studies: | |
| Moshe Eizenberg | 2017.01 – present |
| Dean of Undergraduate Studies: | |
| Ori Lahav | 2017.01 – 2020.09 |
| Dganit Danino | 2020.10 – present |
| Dean for Research: | |
| Zhong Ziyi | 2020.10 – 2021.03 |
| Harold Corke | 2021.03 – 2022.06 |
| Tao Liang | 2022.06 – present |
From this list, it can be seen that only Chancellor Li Jian’ge has served a full four-year term at GTIIT. The only individual who has served more than four years is Aaron Ciechanover, the special envoy of the Technion president to GTIIT, who holds a specially designated position. Additionally, Vice President for Student Affairs Lin Danming and Dean of Undergraduate Studies Dganit Danino have just completed four years as of October 2024. The list of management team consists of 25 people in total, which means that the proportion of management personnel who have served four years or more is only 16%.
Most of the management team at GTIIT holds part-time positions (many only visit GTIIT once or twice a year for about a week), and they have their primary jobs at their own institutions, so they do not have to worry about any issues related to resigning (while students and faculty may face severe consequences for dropping out, management personnel should be safe). This actually reflects the true proportion of individuals willing to be affiliated with GTIIT, which is 16%.
Overall, in a five-year scale, the turnover rate for GTIIT’s management is approximately 80%, the turnover rate for faculty is about 50%, and the dropout rate for students is around 20%. Most Technion professors who joined GTIIT resigned since 2020, after a long turn screening, only those professors whose value closely align with the value of GTIIT are willing to stay. Additionally, due to the high delaying rate at GTIIT, professors can easily manipulate grades, which allows them to coerce or induce students into engaging in illegal activities. The methods are quite varied, including threats of failing grades or offering high scores as rewards, as well as providing exam questions in advance to favored students.
The third group is someone who believes the school’s narrative, who either doesn’t realize what’s happening or doesn’t have time to think it through. For example, when Prof. Ashok Patel died in May 2020, I was puzzled but still accepted the school’s explanation because I was busy with daily life and didn’t have time to think deeply. When Israel Gutter died in December 2021, I found it even more confusing; I am good at cardiovascular diseases and was sure at that time that he didn’t have coronary artery disease. Of course, it’s possible to have a heart attack without it, due to conditions like deep vein thrombosis, but those situations are rare. His death deeply saddened me because his personality resembled my grandfather’s. It felt like losing an elder close to me. At that time, I was in a dispute with Yigal Achmon, and shortly after, I stopped going to school in a regular manner (I used to go back once or twice a week) and started preparing to transfer to another university. I had a very ominous feeling but didn’t dare to think about it too deeply, believing that since Israel Gutter was Israeli and well-liked by students, no one would dare to kill someone like him in China. I have a lot of medical knowledge and found the situation suspicious, but still had such self-deceptive thoughts; many students and teachers at GTIIT might think the same way as I do.
Changing Promotion Strategies
This decline and the fact that students have been posting negative news about GTIIT online have caused GTIIT’s enrollment to plummet in 2020. In 2020, only no more than 200 students applied although the enrollment plan is more than 300, so every high school student who applied could be enrolled. After Chancellor Xin-gao Gong took office in March 2021, in response to this situation, GTIIT’s strategy has been continually encouraging the parents to promote enrollment and bring in more students. Many parents of GTIIT students think that although GTIIT is a wrong choice, having already invested hundreds of thousands, they might as well recruit more people to join them. Anyone who has been in GTIIT’s promotion chat groups knows that there are various misleading promotions, while turning a blind eye to the obvious decline of GTIIT.
Of course, there are some students and parents who are good, recognizing their misfortune and choosing not to mislead others. They consciously refrain from promoting the school. Moreover, the promotion tactics do not only exploit students from rich families; they also deceive those from poor families. For instance, I’ve seen many students from poor families ask in promotion chat groups about whether it is suitable for them to apply GTIIT, and the responses from GTIIT’s admissions staff are typically reassuring, claiming that the school offers scholarships and that students who perform well won’t have to pay, with funding available for graduate studies as well. There are questions on Zhihu, such as “Is GTIIT suitable for someone with a family annual income less than 50,000 RMB, despite I have good grades?” https://www.zhihu.com/question/457618933
There are students encouraging such students apply. These responses are essentially the official answers from GTIIT. However, the reality is different. GTIIT’s scholarships are awarded annually, and if a student’s grades do not meet the required standards after enrollment, their scholarship could be downgraded. For someone with an annual income of only 50,000 RMB, a scholarship downgrade could mean the requirement of paying 30,000 to 50,000 RMB in tuition—can they afford that?
Furthermore, studying abroad in the U.S. or the U.K. starts at a cost of around one million RMB, and while PhD programs might offer more flexibility, living expenses are still significant. Full funding for such programs is either very hard to secure or limited to lower-ranked institutions. As for studying in Israel, living costs there are also high, and the Technion does not guarantee full tuition waivers—only GTIIT does.
For families in such financial situations, the risk of running out of funds during the study is real, leaving them with few options if they manage to finish. If they can secure a full scholarship, wouldn’t it be better to attend a top 50 Chinese university? Those institutions have much lower tuitions (typically 5,000-7,000 RMB) and have opportunities for government-funded study abroad.
This enrollment method makes GTIIT’s student pool the strangest in China. It attracts a group of people whose family conditions are actually not very good, but they save money to apply for GTIIT, hoping that they will be able to apply for good graduate programs in the future. The kind of parents who believe that the price-performance ratio of GTIIT is very high. Of course there are people like this everywhere, but it would be ridiculous to gather in an affiliated university like GTIIT with a tuition fee of 95,000 RMB. GTIIT’s parent chat group is very active. They often discuss their children’s learning status and help the school with various promotions like parents of primary school students. This might be a stereotype of a typical Chinese parent from a Western perspective; however, to be honest, very few parents in China do such things after their kids go to university.
A Trust Crisis Where Everyone Felt Threatened (early 2022-October 2022)
At this point, another significant event occurred at GTIIT, leading to a third phase: a trust crisis, where everyone felt vulnerable. In early 2021, Thanana Nuchkrua joined the GTIIT Mechanical Engineering program as a researcher. He subsequently recruited a large number of students. In early 2022, he abruptly resigned and left his ongoing projects. After his departure, he borrowed money from many GTIIT students, using the excuse that he could help those students get summer research opportunities and claiming he was so poor and he couldn’t even afford a food. The amount involved exceeded 100,000 RMB.
What makes this situation unique is that, unlike previous cases of teachers committing murder or students being bullied—both of which were carried out very secretly, leaving many unaware of the truth—this incident involving the former teacher scamming students affected a large number of students. Almost every GTIIT student became aware of the situation, leading to widespread anxiety and creating a serious trust crisis within the school.
This atmosphere of fear is a breeding ground for rumors. When people feel threatened, their judgment can easily be clouded, making them more susceptible to believing all sorts of bizarre claims. Subsequently, this environment was exploited by the aforementioned criminal groups.
Transformation into a Criminal Hub (October 2022-March 2023)
For example, I collaborated with the aforementioned soil science assistant professor, Yigal Achmon, for eight months starting in April 2021. He helped me privately before. There were only three professors in GTIIT biotechnology department and one rejected me due to my health conditions. In addition, at that time, I had few contact with GTIIT stuffs, so I didn’t have much negative opinions towards GTIIT like other students. So, when I considered to choose between two professors, Prof. Harold Corke and Yigal Achmon, or worked with professors from other universities or did things by myself, I prefered Yigal Achmon at that time. I wasn’t a member of his lab, never signed any documents to join his lab, never attended his group meetings, nor added his lab chat group. I assisted him with numerous bioinformatics issues without any form of compensation or educational support or inspiration.
In May 2021, after I initially demonstrated my abilities, he expressed contempt for the Chinese government in various settings, probing whether he could engage in illegal activities without facing consequences. I didn’t know that GTIIT had so many darks at that time, so failed to grasp his intentions in time. Since he was facing a tenure review in mid-2022, he began to worry in late November 2021 that I might not continue to help him, which could jeopardize his research. He started creating trouble for me, attempting to force me to delay my graduation. One of his colleagues expeled me from a food microbiology course Yigal Achmon was responsible for. When I sought his help, he was unwilling to assist.
Of course, I understood this was his academic freedom, and I did my best to negotiate with him, saying I would teach his students and could recommend others to continue the work, even if I wasn’t available. However, I still couldn’t stop him from causing me trouble. I told him that delaying my graduation would negatively affect my future job prospects in China. He replied, “Then you can go to the US; I think you are more suited for that.” He further threatened me, saying, “We always stand by teachers, not students. You cannot against the system.” However, I never tried to against the system, I just wanted to graduate regularly. At that time, I didn’t fully understand that he was implying GTIIT operates as an independent system where he could engage in illegal activities without facing repercussions.
Such remarks, coupled with the inexplicable death of Israel Gutter, led me to develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), primarily characterized by irrational fear and anxiety related to all these matters. Starting at the end of 2021, I stopped attending classes regularly (previously, I attended once or twice a week) and left the school, although I didn’t formally terminated the study immediately. I continued to live in a rented room. Everyone else in that food microbiology course passed, while I was the only one who was expelled.
Yigal Achmon was extremely angry about my departure and made criminal activities towards me starting in May 2022. He published his first paper as the final author one month before the tenure review and became an associate professor. From summer to October 2022, he formed a detailed murder plan: to cause a car accident on a national highway I crossed everyday from my rented room behind the McDonald to the Chaoshan Fourth Beef Hotpot restaurant.
Since I had not formally terminated my studies, killing a student from the same institution had many difficulties. He hoped to expel me first and then kill me. To expel me, he exaggerated the previous rumors spread by those bullies, escalating them into sexual harassment of female students, saying that I would cheat students out of their money after leaving GTIIT like Thanana Nuchkrua did. In October 2022, he fabricated rumors and evidence about me stealing various items, including but not limited to takeouts, iPhone, AirPods, computer, iPad, Apple Watch, and coerced others to spread them.
The sexual harassment and the scam targeting students for money were originated from the slander from female classmates, along with others thinking I couldn’t even afford a phone. The origin of stealing various items may have been that, due to the pandemic, I stopped dining in restaurants and started take away a food box every day, eating it on the roadside before heading back room. I was primarily worried that food box could carry the SARS‑CoV‑2 virus, and bringing it back room posed a higher risk. When someone followed me, they secretly filmed me eating, which led to the fabrication of these rumors. I must have looked quite unappealing while eating outside, but at that time, doing things to lower the possibility of being infected without considering the look was quite common in China.
His plan was to spread these rumors to GTIIT’s Undergraduate Studies office to have me expelled before killing me. On November 10, 2022, the office of Undergraduate Studies sent me an email.
I understood the regulations and knew that for a termination, the discussion required my involvement; if without my participation, it would be considered a dismissal, which violated the Chinese regulations (normally, only students who commit crimes can be expelled). At that time, I was very busy and didn’t see the email until November 17. During the week, UG had not contacted me or my family by phone or WeChat, despite having my contact information. I am familiar with related regulation in China and in GTIIT, so I realized the danger, I quickly replied to the email, briefly introducing Yigal Achmon’s bullying. Following this, on November 20, I explained the situation in detail to Prof. Harold Corke in person. He is an internationally renowned scholar in grain science, and after hearing about this matter, he expressed his clear support for me. I was planning to apply for transfer to UC Berkeley at that time, but after he expressed his support, I canceled the plan and missed the deadline for transfer applications of 2023 fall. After that, Yigal Achmon’s murder plan was suspended, but GTIIT just felt that killing students was inappropriate and did not care about his illegal and criminal acts such as spreading rumors. On the contrary, GTIIT helped him spread rumors and tracked and monitored me in various ways, mainly by providing funding and resources. I still did not return to school at the time and stayed in the rental room. Yigal Achmon began to spread rumors throughout the school and beyond at the end of 2022, and tried to induce me to apply for termination on my own initiative. These ridiculous rumors caused many students to terminate their studies in GTIIT and teachers to resign.
Since October 2022, GTIIT has gradually turned into a criminal hub. By this time, everyone knew that Yigal Achmon was engaging in illegal activities, and there were no longer any ignorant masses unaware of the truth. It’s important to note that GTIIT is a very wealthy school, with various surveillance cameras covering the entire campus without any blind spots. No matter how convincingly they spread rumors, at first, some people might have believed them due to a crisis of trust, but by the end of 2022, with all the bizarre rumors circulating, very few people truly believed them. Moreover, anyone with even a little legal knowledge understood that their actions were already serious violations of the law. Many students involved those illegal activities just for pleasure and for some interest, e.g., improving their grades.
Moreover, after GTIIT transformed into a criminal hub, another effect emerged: students became afraid to complain about GTIIT online. It can be observed that complaints about GTIIT on platforms like Zhihu significantly decreased after the end of 2022. This decline is primarily due to students being intimidated by widespread rumors and fearing that speaking out could lead to consequences. Many are quietly leaving, even while speaking positively about GTIIT. Coupled with GTIIT’s intervention in altering transcripts to improve students’ graduate applications, GTIIT has seen a significant increase in enrollment for 2023 and 2024, deceiving many high school students.
Transformation into an International Criminal Center (March 2023-present)
Election as a National Deputy
In mid-January 2023, another key event occurred at GTIIT: Chancellor Xin-gao Gong was elected as a deputy to the 14th National People’s Congress https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzI1NjY0NTMyNA==&mid=2247535788&idx=1&sn=fefe0fdae7a7f37abb5e5c7ce82443a1&scene=21&token=623651081&lang=zh_CN#wechat_redirect. This incident directly prompted GTIIT to transform into an international crime center. Previously, GTIIT’s privileges were mainly limited to the institution itself, so in general, the illegal activities still take place within GTIIT, while outside of it, they are mostly conducted remotely. There were still ways for the government to address those illegal activities. For example, theoretically, the Chinese government could arrest Xin-gao Gong and then arrest people related to GTIIT’s crimes. However, according to Chinese law, the arrest of a national deputy must be approved by the National People’s Congress https://www.gjxfj.gov.cn/gjxfj/fgwj/flfg/webinfo/2014/05/1601761496874634.htm. The original purpose of this law is to protect the deputy’s freedom of speech. However, in China, there are often news about the deputies violate the law and the police have enough evidence but can hardly arrest those deputies according to those laws, but can only seek help from the public opinion.
Expansion of Scope
As GTIIT was already a criminal hub, after the Chancellor was elected as a deputy to the National People’s Congress and I submitted my termination application, the scope of GTIIT’s illegal crimes was immediately expanded to my hometown, Hunan Province. On April 3, 2023, I went to GTIIT to inquire at around 3 pm. A teacher in the office of Undergraduate Studies told me that a large number of students applied for termination this semester. At the same time, she suggested that I pack my luggage and return to Zhaoqing as soon as possible, saying that follow-up information would be mailed to me. I didn’t understand what she meant at the time. She was actually implying that GTIIT was already committing crimes and it was safer for you to stay in Zhaoqing. While waiting for the teacher’s reply at school, I also “ran into” a classmate. She advised me to stay at GTIIT and asked me if I was interested in being a grader. I felt confused. She was actually hinting that GTIIT was tracking me. She knew it as soon as I arrived at school, so she rushed over to “ran into” me. At 4 pm, a landline number in Shuangfeng County, Hunan Province sent me a text message, which said “severely punish gang crimes and promote social integrity. You are welcome to actively report the illegal and criminal acts of gang.” But I checked this number online and found that it was the number of the Acute Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Department of Shuangfeng County, Hunan Province. At that time, they were actually threatening me in this way, saying that GTIIT was a gang that is not regulated by the Chinese government, and that they had already spread rumors in Shuangfeng County, Hunan Province. In China, sending text messages from a landline number is very difficult. I suspect that the text messages may not have been sent from Shuangfeng County, but more likely sent to my mobile phone through fake base stations or other means in order to threaten me: my mobile phone communications have been tracked and monitored.
At this point, the community at GTIIT could be divided into three groups.
The first group consists of those who wanted to involve. As I said, some students at GTIIT participated in the school bullying against me. Many of those students later assisted Yigal Achmon in various illegal activities such as spreading rumors and defamation. Additionally, they harassed and threatened those who supported me.
The second group is made up of people who were afraid of retaliation and wanted to stay out of it. Many in this group were later coerced by the first group and also became involved in various illegal activities against me. Some classmates hinted to me that they had received various threats from the school and felt they had no choice. By 2023, I found myself in a state of social death, with all my friends informing me that they had heard rumors spread by Yigal Achmon, yet no one dared to provide concrete evidence of those rumors out of fear of the first group. A few individuals offered me some kind reminders and hints.
The third group wanted to distance themselves from GTIIT. By early 2023, I had a deeper understanding of Yigal Achmon’s malevolence and sensed that he would commit crimes against me later. I judged that returning to GTIIT would be very dangerous. Prof. Harold Corke had hinted to me that GTIIT was already engaging in large-scale illegal activities against me, but I didn’t fully understand his hint at the time. However, I could sense from various clues that GTIIT had no intention of providing me with any feasible solutions. Therefore, even though Prof. Harold Corke tried to keep me there, I submitted my termination application in early March 2023, with the reason“Studying Difficulties,” and received approval on April 19, 2023.
My Termination number was 18, which indicates that I was the 18th person to terminate the study in 2023. After me, even more people terminated. At that time, there were also a significant number of students transferring to other universities in China, probably around twenty. In just over three months, more than forty students terminated their students or transferred to other Chinese universities from GTIIT, which has a little over a thousand students. Additionally, some teachers openly resigned and held farewell parties.
The incident of rumors about me developed gradually. Initially, they spread rumors within the university, then extended to Shantou University, and later to the entire city of Shantou, and to Zhaoqing City. Even after I terminated the study, they continued to stalk me.
Discover of Statistics Papers through Illegal Means
In May 2023, a significant event occurred. They discovered, through illegal means, the theoretical statistics paper I was preparing at that time.
After leaving the university at the end of 2021, I had more time to independently research and produce some results in biostatistics and theoretical statistics while living in that rental room. These results had the potential to earn me a Nobel Prize and a Fields Medal. Due to my poor mental state at the time, including being on the autism spectrum (Asperger Symptom) and suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), I feared that publishing potential Nobel Prize-winning results of such significance would severely disrupt my normal life. Therefore, I directly transferred the relevant materials to a USB drive for safekeeping.
My theoretical statistics papers provided solutions to a question originated from Gauss that has been puzzled for more than two centuries. I had previously thought that the highest award I could achieve for the theoretical statistics results was the COPSS Presidents’ Award, as the Fields Medal had never been awarded for theoretical statistics before. It wasn’t until April 2024 that I realized this. At that time, I dedicated all my time to preparing for the publication of my theoretical statistics results, and the preparation of my paper was highly confidential. I never disclosed any information about it to anyone at GTIIT or Technion in any form. After the end of 2021, I did not discuss any mathematical or statistical issues with anyone from GTIIT or Technion. Due to my post-traumatic stress disorder, I strictly avoided any labels related to that incident. There was absolutely no direct contribution from GTIIT in terms of education, ideas, opinions, or anything else related to my papers.
My paper was under review at PNAS, and its editor, Peter Bickel, is one of the most prestigous scholars in the history of statistics. He is a statistics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, the first recipient of the COPSS President’s Award, and a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. He was a student of Erich Lehmann, a leading figure in second-generation statistics, who was himself a student of Jerzy Neyman, one of the three founders of modern statistics. My paper received extremely valuable feedback from him, and more importantly, he helped me rebuild my trust in others.
In early March 2023, when I submitted my termination application, I wrote a lengthy letter to Peter Bickel explaining my decision. In the letter, I primarily addressed five points:
- The decline of GTIIT is inevitable, and there is a risk of closure in the future. A significant number of teachers and students have already left.
- The decline of GTIIT is directly related to its moral corruption.
- Although I seemed capable of reversing GTIIT’s decline, I actually lacked the ability to do so. Working with bad guys might lead to many unforeseen issues. (At that time, I envisioned two possible futures for GTIIT: one where it fails to attract students and funding, leading to closure, and another where it resorts to illegal means, becoming a center of crime and subsequently being shut down by the government. I pondered which path GTIIT would choose; if it opted for the former, I felt an obligation to help. However, based on various clues, I gradually formed the judgment that GTIIT would choose the latter. My experience with Yigal Achmon taught me that those who choose the latter path cannot be saved, and attempting to do so would only drag me down.)
- Overall, I isolated myself from GTIIT, with very few connections. While there was some assistance, it was not worth the harm I had suffered. My statistics paper was irrelevant as there were no statistics professors at GTIIT. I had only taken a basic statistics course taught by an environmental professor and completed only three math courses from the math program. Prior to attending GTIIT, I had systematically studied American high school and college mathematics/statistics textbooks.
- Continuing at GTIIT could pose a danger to me.
Peter Bickel, a Jewish who had previously been a visiting professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was well aware of the situation at Technion. He initially hoped I would graduate from GTIIT, as he was not fully informed about its circumstances. After I wrote this letter, he took a day to reflect and agreed with my decision in early March 2023, advising me to continue perfecting my paper.
At that time, I was already twenty-eight years old and had not yet gotten a undergraduate degree. If I transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, I already missed the transfer deadline of late November 2022, which I had initially planned to apply for. After receiving support from Harold Corke in late November 2022, I canceled my application plans. Given that I missed the application deadline, even if I went to Berkeley, the earliest I could enroll would be in the fall of 2024. I considered attending a UK university to obtain an undergraduate degree first (as the transfer deadline there was later), but ultimately decided against it due to Peter Bickel’s support.
Termination the study in GTIIT was an extremely costly decision for me, both in terms of time and fame. I also considered the potential controversy. For instance, I knew that another editor at PNAS had a wife and father-in-law who were alumni of Technion, and he himself had received an honorary degree from there. Additionally, one of Peter Bickel’s students had completed both undergraduate and graduate studies at Technion, and there are other similar connections. My statistical research had no direct ties to either GTIIT or Technion, but GTIIT could easily reach out to these individuals in my network.
This situation is akin to the relationship between University of Wisconsin-Platteville Richland and MIT. Some faculty members at University of Wisconsin-Platteville Richland come from University of Wisconsin–Madison, and some MIT alumni have spouses who are alumni of University of Wisconsin–Madison. Therefore, if University of Wisconsin-Platteville Richland wanted to reach someone from MIT, it would be much easier than for other colleges with similar level. Of course, even I would have no problem if I could graduate from University of Wisconsin-Platteville Richland, but GTIIT was a potential criminal center.
At that time, I believed that my statistical research, which was the highest award in statistics, had no public recognition in China, and most people were unaware of it. I thought that if I remained at GTIIT, I would undoubtedly face significant trouble, even danger. However, if I left, GTIIT would likely be cautious about the repercussions. As for fame, I knew there would be losses, would have controversy, potentially greater than the time lost. However, after careful consideration, I concluded that this was still preferable to being associated with a potential criminal center, as I could not educate others against crime.
The core reason for my judgment was that after experiencing severe bullying from Yigal Achmon, GTIIT did not reach out to me for three months, nor did they consider providing any compensation. This indicated a lack of basic empathy from those involved. At that time, I was not aware that Yigal Achmon already resort to extreme actions, such as rumors, murder plan, due to my leaving, nor did I anticipate that GTIIT would assist him in monitoring me.
However, a month after my termination application was approved, in mid-May 2023, Xin-gao Gong and Yigal Achmon and others illegally discovered my highly confidential statistical papers. On May 11, Chancellor Xin-gao Gong summoned one student with the best GPA in the math program and in my WeChat contact list (I only had no more than ten sentences with him previously) and planned to select him as the core author who plagiarized my papers.
At that time, GTIIT was actually divided into two groups. One group wanted to remind me through various means that my papers had been discovered and hoped that I could return to GTIIT. The other group wanted to plagiarize my papers. For example, on May 14, Paulo Tirao, a professor in the Department of Mathematics, released an education video on GTIIT’s WeChat video account, focusing on Gauss’s findings. His purpose was to imply that my papers has been discovered. But within a few days, the second group led by Chancellor Xin-gao Gong and Yigal Achmon began to spread rumors to well-known international scholars to prevent the publication of my theoretical statistics papers, and planned to cooperate with others to plagiarize my papers. It should be noted that I have never had any form of contact with Chancellor Xin-gao Gong. He may only have indirect knowledge of me from the Yigal Achmon rumor incident.
I sought help from Peter Bickel, who secured support from PNAS and the University of California, Berkeley. With their full backing, Yigal Achmon was unable to plagiarize my papers. Due to the extensive rumors he spread, the situation became widely known, and I was initially confident that it could be resolved peacefully.
A Campaign of Defamation
However, subsequently, Yigal Achmon orchestrated a campaign of defamation across more than a hundred universities in over a dozen countries, rumoring that I had stolen food, phones, computers, and Apple watches, as well as accusations of sexual harassment and attempts to defraud others. He also harassed and threatened foreign professors. These rumors were spread privately and were extremely secretive, taking me a long time to untangle. I had not fully grasped the extent of Yigal Achmon’s maliciousness, which led me to hold onto false hopes for a long time. At the same time, Xin-gao Gong let students do similar things in all provinces in China.
I misjudged his methods. Peter Bickel would certainly not believe the absurd rumors he spread. A true professional statistics scholar can easily see the ridiculousness of such claims. However, Yigal Achmon did not intend to convince Peter Bickel directly. PNAS is the journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), and the National Academy of Sciences is the largest academic institution in the world, with more than 3,000 members, including a large number of foreign members, located in hundreds of universities around the world. In the past, when PNAS articles were controversial, the NAS would convene a meeting of memebers to vote. His actual strategy was to generate a large volume of fabricated evidence using generative artificial intelligence to persuade many uninformed onlookers, who would then pressure the corresponding NAS members of their schools. Although PNAS and UC Berkeley knew the rumors were false, it was extremely difficult for them to refute each claim, as many were highly specialized and challenging to explain to outsiders. They did attempt to address the situation, but with limited success, as the adage goes: “It is easier to spread rumors than to refute them.” Moreover, I was reluctant to come forward to refute the claims myself. Chancellor Xin-gao Gong directed people to spread rumors across China in order to build public opinion in China and prevent the National People’s Congress from agreeing to arrest him.
During this period, they systematically coerced professors from other universities to provide assistance and support for their further studies and research. Their scope of plagiarism also expanded to include other scholars, not just me.
As the rumors persisted, the pressure on them increased, and more people began to believe the falsehoods. The bizarre and spectacular nature of the large-scale defamation campaign left me fearful and hesitant to speak out publicly for a long time, which negatively impacted my mental state. From July 2023 to July 2024, I repeatedly negotiated with Yigal Achmon, hoping he would cease his illegal activities, but to no avail. Instead, he continued to threaten me with death. For example, in September, 2023, at that time I had a talk with him, and he asked for becoming a co-first or co-corresponding author on my statistics papers while signing documents of joining his lab. I rejected. Then, my families suffered minor car accidents subsequently, and he implied that those were made by his fellows. During this period, I was cautious every day and lived in fear of suicide, poisoning, or car accidents. In order to protect myself, I walked as much as possible, and for several months I ate rice pudding and biscuits to maintain life.
During this time, many students and faculty members at GTIIT distanced themselves from the institution. For example, if you check the LinkedIn profiles of GTIIT students and professors, most have changed their affiliations to indicate they are from Technion. After all, being the subject of such widespread defamation globally is a deeply embarrassing situation for anyone who has been associated with GTIIT. Yigal Achmon is an extremely thoughtless individual; he believed many would accept his rumors without question, leading him to act recklessly. However, many students and faculty members were well aware of the truth.
Publicly Allegations And Refuting Rumors
This situation continued until February 2024, when I realized that I had post-traumatic stress disorder and subsequently began appropriate treatment, which led to my recovery by around June. During this time, I repeatedly negotiated privately with Yigal Achmon. In August 2024, I faced serious death threats, prompting me to publicly refute allegations against Yigal Achmon regarding attempted murder in English to over 500,000 scholars internationally. He was originally in GTIIT for his research, but he immediately put down his work and went to other countries since mid-August. Even now, the end of October 2024, more than two months passed, and the fall semester already started, he is still unwilling to come back to GTIIT to teach his courses.
Currently, the vast majority of universities worldwide are aware of this situation: a potential attempted murderer has emerged from GTIIT. Initially, I tried to distance GTIIT from the overall responsibility in my refutations. However, Yigal Achmon’s slander escalated, and he even began to spread rumors that I had a mental illness. At that time, I hoped that GTIIT would no longer protect Yigal Achmon. However, after two months of talk, with no veil. Instead, GTIIT even escalated the measures and directly threaten my families by ugly means at the end of September, 2024. I then discovered the suspicious death of Prof. Ashok Patel and made this public internationally. Subsequently, I uncovered incidents involving three other teachers. After repeated attempts to persuade Yigal Achmon to confess his crime to the police in failed, I also made this information public.
Moreover, Yigal Achmon is highly deceptive; listen to my conversation with him in June of this year. He had been planning to murder me for two years while repeatedly saying, “I wish the best for you.” Those who are insincere and put on a facade are difficult to understand without personal experience. This talk also confirms all key events during collaboration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xhn8Wrzxdk&t=11s
Indeed, over the past one year, every month, I refresh my understanding of the moral standard of GTIIT, until recently I finally realized that there is actually such a hell on earth within higher education institutions.
Discussion
People should be very careful when comparing GTIIT with other universities. This is because, such a high level murder rate is highly abnormal, to my knowledge, I don’t know another similar case.
For those who stayed in GTIIT, don’t worry, you are not alone. I, and many many excelent scholars stayed in GTIIT. As long as you cut the relations with GTIIT, you can have your life and future, especially if we can stand together to accuse the crime did by GTIIT. Also, we should separate those true Technion professors and those professors chose to join GTIIT. As I said, through a long time screening, more than half Technion professors who originally joined GTIIT resigned their positions after 2020.
I am trying to convince Chinese and Technion to close GTIIT. Someone still at GTIIT do not agree. You may not realize that I actually saved many people from being murdered.
Before GTIIT transformed into a criminal hub, most of the murder cases in GTIIT were small-scale, and the relevant murderers had developed to the point where they would kill for very small conflicts (in October 2022, I just I didn’t go to school for more than half a year, and I refused Yigal Achmon’s invitation to collaborate. He was going to kill me). If I had not made the bullying of Yigal Achmon public on a small scale, the abnormal deaths in GTIIT would have continued for a long time.
GTIIT is spreading its criminal culture. There are also some people from GTIIT who are laughing at me.
There is really nothing we can do about it at this stage. So I can only called for your support. Of course, resorting to public opinion is not immediately effective. Friends of Ashok Patel tried it on Twitter and Facebook in 2020, and also wrote various letters, but in the end they failed to launch an investigation. Now I’m here to take over the work, and I will do it better.
Leave a Reply