"Chinese Sisters Expose Shocking 10-Year Affair Between Their Father and His Student"

Allegations of Wuhan University Research Fund Misuse Raised
Whistleblowers, Accused Parties Have Yet to Make Public Statements

In China, controversy has emerged after two sisters exposed their biological father for maintaining an inappropriate relationship with his student for a decade.

In China, daughters have exposed their father's infidelity, causing a stir. Hong Kong South China Morning Post (SCMP).

According to the Hong Kong South China Morning Post (SCMP) on September 9, the father exposed by the sisters is Fu Lei, Vice President and Standing Committee Member of the Party Committee at Anhui University, who previously served as a professor and doctoral advisor at the School of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences at Wuhan University.

According to the 86-page exposé, Fu Lei (47) had been in a relationship with Zheng Mengqi (35), whom he was supervising as a doctoral student, since 2016. The two daughters claimed that they discovered the relationship in 2018, when they noticed that their father and Zheng Mengqi were each using characters from the Japanese animation series 'Detective Conan' as their online profile pictures.

The sisters also reported that they saw Zheng Mengqi contacting Fu Lei on holidays and sending provocative messages to their mother.

Zheng Mengqi married a colleague at the university in 2023, but continued her relationship with Fu Lei thereafter. Fu Lei left the family two years ago, after which the mother raised the two daughters alone and solely handled the burden of a mortgage loan. During this period, the mother is said to have lost as much as 15 kilograms.

The eldest daughter, who is 20 years old, confronted her father directly at a university leadership meeting and made him sign an agreement to pay 5,000 yuan (approximately 990,000 won) in monthly child support. Fu Lei's annual salary is reported to exceed 1 million yuan (about 200 million won).

The exposé also alleged that beyond the private relationship between Fu Lei and Zheng Mengqi, the two had misappropriated university research funds for personal use. Regarding Zheng Mengqi’s academic activities, it was claimed that she had taken first-authorship credit from other students, and that Fu Lei had ghostwritten major journal articles. Papers published in journals such as Nature Materials and the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) were mentioned in the exposé.

After earning her doctorate in 2018, Zheng Mengqi became an associate professor in 2020 and was promoted to full professor the following year. She was also reportedly selected for a national-level young talent support program.

As the controversy grew, Wuhan University officially announced on September 3 that it had received related tip-off materials and launched an investigation. Anhui University, where Fu Lei is currently employed, also began a separate investigation. Both universities stated they would release the investigation results once available; however, as of now, it is reported that neither individual has been suspended from their duties.

However, not all the contents of the exposé have been independently verified. Both Fu Lei and Zheng Mengqi have not made any public statements regarding the allegations to date. According to SCMP, neither had responded to requests for comment as of the time the article was written.

Legal expert Zhou Zhaocheng explained that if university investigations confirm violations of professional ethics or academic misconduct, the two could be dismissed or removed from their positions. On the other hand, if the exposé is determined to be exaggerated, the informants may be held liable for defamation, he added.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.