December 24, 2008
On December 8, a post, supposedly written by a student of Xi’an’s Xidian University appeared on a forum website, saying that his identity was used to open a credit card account without his knowledge. The author suspected that the university was responsible and urged other students to check their accounts. The post was followed by confirmation that many students at Xidian University also have credit cards under their names that they did not apply for.
The university administration later admitted using the personal information of over 10,000 students to register credit cards at the local branch of the Industry and Commerce Bank. In an explanation issued to the students, the university said that because that the bank had given the university financial help to fund its “leap development”, the university, which felt indebted to the bank, decided to give the bank the students’ personal information.
In an interview with China National Radio (CNR), a university official said, “Without money, how could we build our new campus? … we asked for their help when we were in a difficult situation, now they need our help. Mutual benefit is the foundation of a good relationship, you students should understand it.”
When the CNR reporter asked if the university had any regulations to protect students’ personal information from being revealed without their consent, Qiang Jianzhou, vice professor and head of the university publicity department, responded: “…we will take over Tianya, and all the sources that you get your information from”
Qiang refused to let the reporter go when she asked to leave, threatening to call the security guard to keep her in custody. The whole process was recorded and broadcast by the radio station. In the audio recording, Qiang says that “I am going to do something that will shock the entire country.”
In a later interview, Qiang broke into tears, saying that he didn’t mean to detain the reporter, and in reality, he just “tugged at her bag lightly and she went back into the office with me.” As to his statement about taking over Tianya, Qiang explained that what he meant was to publish his explanation on Tianya.
Now a celebrity, Qiang said he has been harassed by nonstop phone calls from all around the world.
- Netease (Chinese): Publicity director of Xidian threatens to take over Tianya.
- ESWN: Tianya invader is in tears