She was hailed as a “genius” for her scores in a national math competition. Now this 17-year-old girl from China is accused of cheating.
Jiang Ping, who gained attention for her stunning performance, had cheated, pageant organizers revealed, ending months of speculation about her results.
Introduced in 2018 by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, this free online competition is open to math enthusiasts worldwide, although Chinese math majors generally claim the top rankings. This year, the top 85 entrants will receive prizes ranging from $2,000 to $30,000.
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Who is the 17-year-old girl?
Jiang Ping, a 17-year-old girl from a poor village in east China’s Jiangsu Province, was ranked 12th out of 802 contestants in the first round of the Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition.
This achievement, announced on June 13 by DAMO Academy, the competition’s organizer, set her apart, as most of the top scorers came from prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Oxford and MIT.
Jiang became the first finalist in the history of the competition, which began in 2018, to come from a low vocational school, according to Chinese media. Most of the 800 finalists usually come from elite universities, making her success an exception. Her high ranking made her an overnight sensation, with the media and social platforms calling her a “prodigy”.
In China’s famously competitive education system, academic excellence is highly prized, and Jiang’s success inspired many who saw it as proof that students from vocational schools can also achieve academic distinction.
But skepticism about her math skills arose online.
The rise of a math genius
The annual mathematics competition, organized by DAMO Academy, is open to competitors from institutions around the world.
This year, Jiang, a student at Jiangsu Lianshui Secondary Vocational School, bested other finalists from some of the world’s most renowned institutions.
Notably, she chose the vocational school because of her interest in fashion design and because her sister and friends were enrolled there, according to local media.
Jiang’s impressive performance and unique educational background quickly captured nationwide attention. Her story was featured in a video by DAMO Academy, and she was interviewed by news channels across China.
“Learning maths is uneven, but every time I solve the problems I feel quite happy,” she told the state-owned company. People’s daily newspaper.
“Whatever the future holds, I will continue to learn.”
Jiang’s teacher, Wang Runqiu, also received attention, hailed as an educator who recognized and nurtured her passion for mathematics. He described her as a focused student who had learned advanced mathematics.
He said, “I have encountered many setbacks in the process of learning mathematics.”
“So I want to do everything I can to help my students and let them know that there are other opportunities in the future.”
Alongside praise for Jiang and her teachers, her story sparked debate about whether China’s education system is adequately supporting gifted students in less traditional academic tracks — especially those whose potential would otherwise go unrecognized.
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So what happened?
On Sunday, pageant organizers revealed that Jiang had violated pageant rules in the preliminary round by enlisting the help of her teacher, who was also competing, South China Morning Post reported.
“This has exposed issues such as flaws in the competition format and a lack of rigor in oversight. We sincerely apologize,” the organizers said in a statement.
When the final results were announced on Sunday, neither Jiang nor her teacher were among the 86 winners.
In a joint letter to the organizing committee, 39 other finalists claimed that Jiang “made several obvious typos” when solving a problem on a blackboard in a DAMO Academy documentary video, according to the report.
“She seemed unfamiliar with these mathematical expressions and symbols,” the contestants claimed, suggesting that her teacher had helped her.
While the preliminary round allowed contestants to use programming software, the final round was a closed book exam. Originally due in August, the final results were delayed for several months and were finally released on Sunday, with Jiang absent from the list of winners.
Jiang’s school also confirmed on Sunday that her teacher Wang had indeed helped her. Wang was given a warning and disqualified from the teacher awards for the year. The school also requested leniency for Jiang and called for the need for support, BBC reported.
Following the revelations, Jiang and her teachers received strong criticism, but many social media users defended her, claiming that the primary responsibility lay with her school and teachers.
“Jiang Ping is not innocent, that’s for sure. But who are the worst parties in this?” a Weibo post read. “The adults took this child to do a bad deed and let her suffer all the consequences.”
“Even if it was all fake, Jiang Ping wasn’t the mastermind behind it,” another user wrote. “She shall not be burned at the stake.”
