In China, some researchers are attending academic conferences that do not exist

**A new wave of academic scams is sweeping China, targeting researchers with fake conferences that never take place.** Scammers are exploiting academics who need published papers for career advancement, charging thousands of yuan for submissions that end up in obscure, unindexed journals. Liu Xia, a lecturer in Wuhan, paid 4,600 yuan for a conference that was entirely fabricated, with a made-up organizing committee and no actual event. She emphasized that victims are not unintelligent but simply unfamiliar with how legitimate conference publications operate.</p><p class="summary-lead">**The problem extends beyond individual cases, with multiple victims sharing similar stories on Chinese social media.** One postgraduate student’s supervisor even approved a submission to a fraudulent conference, missing all red flags. In a separate incident, a Pakistani professor discovered her name was listed on a conference’s organizing committee without her consent, prompting a public LinkedIn warning. The 2026 International Conference on Nanomaterials, Biomedicine and Cancer Therapy, scheduled for Suzhou, was postponed and never held on its advertised date.</p><p class="summary-lead">**These bogus conferences are often run by procedurally compliant companies that evade regulatory scrutiny.** Wu Guangheng, an academic integrity advocate, traced one organizer to a company in Sichuan that had hosted numerous fake conferences across fields like data science and medical imaging. Beijing Language and Culture University also had to issue a statement denying involvement in a conference that was charging students fees. The scams persist because many victims choose not to pursue legal action, and market regulators lack the capacity or incentive to investigate deeply.</p><p class="summary-lead">**The existence of this grey industry is tied to China’s broader academic ecosystem, where paper publication is a key metric for career progression.** Some researchers knowingly submit to these fake conferences because they offer rapid acceptance and online visibility, meeting requirements for scholarships or professional titles. Liu Xia noted that a PhD student at a top university openly admitted these conferences were “junk” but used them anyway. This creates a mutually beneficial arrangement between scammers and desperate academics, though Liu finds the lack of transparency most unacceptable.</p><p class="summary-lead">**What to watch next:** Whether Chinese regulators will tighten oversight of academic conference organizers, and if universities will revise their publication requirements to reduce demand for such fraudulent venues.