Investigation into the "Hanxin No. 1" fraud case: The fraud is basically true

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Investigation into the "Hanxin No. 1" fraud case: The fraud is basically true [Copy link]

Said that the investigation process of the investigation team "is not complicated."

"The highest-level national investigation team has contacted us." At 6 p.m. on February 16, at the "See You There" Hong Kong-style tea restaurant on Wanping Road in Shanghai, the "mysterious person" who reported the "Hanxin No. 1" fraud told our reporter: "We are assisting in the investigation."

This is the second appearance of the "mysterious man" after the "Hanxin No. 1 fraud rumor" broke out (see our report on January 25, "Investigation into the "Hanxin No. 1" fraud rumor" and on January 27, "Investigation into the "Hanxin No. 1" fraud case Part 2: Night meeting with the "mysterious man"").

"None of the members of the investigation team is the expert who identified the successful development of 'Hanxin No. 1' at the time." According to the whistleblower, the investigation team is composed of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education and the Shanghai Municipal Government, with a total of more than ten members.

The whistleblower said: "Today, the investigation team has basically confirmed that the fraud of 'Hanxin No. 1' is true. But I don't know what kind of punishment the Shanghai Jiaotong University will take against Chen Jin."

As of press time, Chen Jin's phone was still unanswered. The on-duty staff of the School of Microelectronics of Shanghai Jiao Tong University told reporters: "Chen Jin is still at work, his time of arrival is irregular, and he often goes out."

Shanghai Jiaotong University, which promised to hold a press conference on the matter, has remained silent except for a public statement issued on January 26. The statement said, "Regarding the suspected fraud of the 'Hanxin' series of chips, our university has set up a special investigation committee. Our university has suggested that relevant authorities organize experts to investigate and publish the conclusions in due course."

The "latest investigation team" was established on New Year's Eve

"On the eve of the 2006 Spring Festival, I received a call from someone claiming to be from the 'State Council.'" The whistleblower said, "Because the other party said the meeting place was the Shanghai Municipal Government Office, I believed this call without any caller ID and their identity.

According to him, this latest investigation team was established on January 28, 2006, the New Year's Eve, "arrived in Shanghai around February 10, and later had 'secret talks' with several whistleblowers."

This time, the whistleblower clearly stated that the members he reported included "core members of the original Hanxin team's 'Technology Department', 'R&D Department' and 'Marketing Department'."

"After the two sides reached an agreement, the investigation team made a 'written commitment'," the whistleblower said. "The content included: the investigation team represented the highest DSP technology in China; the investigation team guaranteed 'absolute fairness' and had no economic or other relationship with the 'Hanxin team' or us; the state had no contingency plan for the investigation of the investigation team."

"They are not academicians or experts, but mostly technicians from frontline factories, companies and the Ministry of Science and Technology," the whistleblower said. "Although they did not introduce themselves to us, they are all industry insiders and I know three of them." But the whistleblower repeatedly emphasized, "I cannot reveal their names because of the confidentiality agreement."

"Between February 10 and February 15, we met with the investigation team three times," the whistleblower said. "On the afternoon of February 11, the investigation team came to the School of Microelectronics of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and found Chen Jin and had a private conversation with him."

"As of today, the investigation team has basically confirmed that the fraud of 'Hanxin No. 1' is true." The whistleblower said that the investigation process of the investigation team "is not complicated."

"First, we provided him with the original information and layout data of 'Hanxin No. 1'. Then, the investigation team asked Chen Jin for the 'Hanxin No. 1' in his hand. If the two do not match, the investigation team can retrieve the pictures of the 'Hanxin No. 1' demonstration at the press conference in Shanghai Jinjiang Small Auditorium on February 26, 2003, because there was a lot of media publicity at the time, which is public information." The whistleblower said, "Comparing these three items, the investigation team concluded that the original version of 'Hanxin No. 1' is what we provided."

"Finally, the investigation team compared the public technical information of Freescale's dsp'56858' with the original technical information of 'Hanxin No. 1', and concluded whether 'Hanxin No. 1' was related." Previously, the whistleblower said that Chen Jin bought 10 MOTO-freescale "56800 chips" from Freescale (formerly Motorola's semiconductor division, renamed Freescale in February 2004) and hired migrant workers to sand off the words MOTO and other words on the surface of the chip with sandpaper, and then added the "Hanxin" logo.

On February 17, the reporter asked Shanghai Jiao Tong University and its School of Microelectronics whether there was an investigation team heading south, and the answers were "I'm not aware."

According to the informant, "the members of the investigation team were arranged by the Shanghai Municipal Government to stay at the 'Regal Global East Asia' Hotel on Hengshan Road, Shanghai." At 8:30 pm on February 16, the reporter went to the "Regal Global East Asia" hotel to verify.

"There is indeed a group of experts who came from Beijing arranged by the Shanghai Municipal Government. But if we cannot tell you their names, we cannot provide anyone's room number and extension number," said the front desk staff of the Regal Global East Asia Hotel.

Chen Jin's Energy

"There are probably no more than five people in the Hanxin team who are truly skilled," the whistleblower said. "After spending a few years with Chen Jin, I don't believe that Chen Jin's skills can surpass Freescale's engineers. In fact, Chen Jin's major in studying in the United States was analog circuit testing, which is different from the DSP major from the perspective of IC design."

Chen Jin’s resume on the internal website of Shanghai Jiao Tong University shows: Chen Jin holds a master’s and doctorate in computer engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

On the evening of February 16, the reporter found Chen Jin's doctoral dissertation from the American "dissertation library search" website "UMI Proquest". This dissertation, titled "Fault Modeling and Test Techniques for Analog and Mixed-signal Circuits", was completed by Chen Jin in 1998 at the University of Texas at Austin.

The paper summary shows: "The rapid growth of the multimedia industry has also prompted revolutionary progress in analog and mixed-signal circuit design. However, analog and mixed-signal circuit design has been severely challenged by backward testing, and current testing technology is insufficient to detect random defects in analog circuits." In this regard, Chen Jin designed some testing algorithms and techniques in the paper.

"The direction of the paper has no direct relationship with chip design, but there is a certain indirect relationship." An Intel professional told reporters: "But such a paper is like a screw to a rocket, just like car design is different from car safety testing."

As of press time, the reporter has not received an email reply from Chen Jin's mentor, Jacob Abraham, professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas.

So, did Chen Jin really enter the DSP design industry after his work and thus acquire considerable design capabilities?

According to Chen Jin's resume on the internal website of Shanghai Jiao Tong University: Chen Jin has worked as a senior chief engineer and chip design manager at Motorola and Analog Device in the United States, engaged in the development of high-speed wireless communication chips and DSP core circuits, and served as the designer and project leader of many major SOC system chips.

"Since the 'Hanxin' laboratory was established in March 2001, assuming Chen Jin returned to China in 2000, in more than three years, although he should have mastered existing algorithms and technologies, it is hard to say that he is experienced, especially when entering a new field." The above-mentioned DSP design industry insider said, "Designing a DSP is not easy, especially with independent intellectual property architecture and high performance, which requires a lot of accumulation."

"I don't know whether the Chinese translation of the job titles in American companies is accurate," an industry insider told the reporter. "Also, I hope to see more public information about the source of the resumes."

Who is “JinChen”

According to the "Birth Story of 'Hanxin' No. 1" on the website of the School of Microelectronics of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, "Hanxin No. 1" was taped out by SMIC and packaged by Wei Yu.

The first piece of "evidence" provided to this newspaper by the whistleblower on the evening of January 25 showed that on March 5, 2003, Chen Jin presented an invoice for US$35,080 to the Chip and System Research Center of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (the predecessor of the School of Microelectronics of Shanghai Jiao Tong University) in the name of "ENSOC, an American company, responsible for the testing, packaging and development system of Hanxin Edsp21600 (i.e. 'Hanxin No. 1') samples."

Attached to this receipt is a copy of the "USA ENSOC Technologies Company - Shanghai Jiao Tong University Hanxin Wafer Processing and Testing Cooperation Agreement" (hereinafter referred to as the "Cooperation Agreement") signed on November 5, 2002 in Chinese and English.

On the "Cooperation Agreement", the legal representatives of Party A "ENSOC Technologies of the United States" and Party B "Chip and System Research Center of Shanghai Jiao Tong University" signed respectively: ENSOC President "Robin C.P. Liu" and Chen Jin.

"This is a 'shell' company with no main business. The registrant of the US ENSOC company is 'JinChen', a small company that Chen Jin registered for himself when he returned to the US in 2002." The whistleblower said: "In fact, Chen Jin used Wei Yu to package the 'big chips' obtained from SMIC's wafer taping and marked them with the 'Hanxin No. 1' logo, while AMKOR was responsible for adding the Hanxin logo to the chips polished by Chen Jin and the migrant workers. However, Chen Jin remitted money to ENSOC in the name of the above-mentioned project to enrich himself."

According to the source of information provided by the whistleblower to the reporter, the Travis County Clerk's website in Austin, Texas, USA, which registers contracts and licenses, shows that the registrant of ENSOC is "JinChen", but as of press time, the reporter was unable to open the website provided by him.

The whistleblower also said: "I have asked my American friends to help obtain ENSOC's registration information from relevant agencies in Austin, Texas. By comparing Chen Jin's English signature in this material with the signature of "RobinLiu" in the "Cooperation Agreement", it can be seen that "RobinLiu's signature was also signed by Chen Jin."

According to the first piece of "evidence" provided by the informant, the reporter found that the address of ENSOC is "1819 Montana Sky Drive Austin, TX, 78727), which is 1819 Austin, Texas, USA. On February 10, the reporter found from the satellite positioning map of Googlemaps that "1819 Austin, Texas, USA" and its vicinity are a large area of "private residences".

Afterwards, the reporter searched through the American telephone inquiry website "411.com", which is similar to the domestic "114", and found that the telephone number for the address was "(512)670-9×××".

On February 15th in the afternoon of the United States, the reporter contacted this number many times, and was always automatically replied by a female voice saying, "Hello, I can't answer your call now. Please leave your name and phone number."

"If this is a normal company, someone should answer the phone during working hours," an industry insider questioned our reporter.

Subsequently, the reporter found through the public Travis County Real Estate Assessment Network in Austin, Texas, that the owner of this private residence was "Robin Liu" and his wife "Hui-Yao Lin".

At 8:00 p.m. on February 15, U.S. time, the reporter called the number again and a young male voice answered the phone. When the reporter asked if he could speak to "Robin Liu" or "Hui-yao Lin," the male voice replied, "My parents are not at home."

"The United States allows companies to be registered at residential addresses, especially research-based companies, which are just a shell because specific research activities can be conducted in universities, research institutes or domestically." At 1 a.m. on February 11, Li Zhaoyang, an intellectual property lawyer at an international law firm in San Francisco, USA, responded in an email to reporters, stating that "he had no knowledge of and no intention of intervening in this matter, and was only analyzing ENSOC's registration in the United States."

An industry insider pointed out: "From the projects that ENSOC is responsible for, it should be a production-oriented company, which requires a certain scale of factory buildings and at least one laboratory." But Chen Jin's phone was always unanswered. Later, the reporter learned from the website of Jackson State University in Mississippi that Robin Liu is Taiwanese and currently works as an assistant professor at Jackson University. "Robin Liu is Taiwanese," the whistleblower said, "and the "Cooperation Agreement" states that ENSOC is a company founded by Chinese students in the United States, which is obviously wrong."

At the same time, the reporter learned from a "Tree of Ed McCluskey's students for the Computer History" about Professor Ed McCluskey, a famous American scholar in the field of computer science, that Robin Liu and Chen Jin's doctoral supervisor when they were studying at the University of Texas at Austin was Jacob Abraham, a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas; Chen Jin graduated in 1998 and Robin Liu graduated in 1999; after graduation, they worked together at "Motorola" in the United States.

The Lack of Rationality and the Return to Rationality Behind the "Hanxin" Incident

Since mid-January this year, this newspaper has been conducting in-depth investigations and reports on the "Hanxin" fraud incident. The truth is getting closer. The dual facts of exploiting loopholes in the scientific research system for personal gain and academic fraud have attracted great public attention, and relevant national departments have also intervened in the investigation.

In today's innovative countries, the effective combination of the national competitive strategy and accurate positioning of government investment, the independence and professionalism in the field of scientific research, and the maturity and perfection of the relevant market economy system constitutes the core driving force for development. The occurrence of the "Hanxin" incident did not deny the rationality of government investment as an important part of building an innovative country. It just showed again at the right time that the system and rules for resource allocation urgently need to be changed.

Under the project approval system mainly based on administrative means, huge scientific research funds have always been allocated by government departments at all levels. At the same time, on the one hand, independent innovation results are a new indicator of government performance, and relevant expert appraisal organizations and institutions are under strong pressure from all parties; on the other hand, my country's scientific research field has long been plagued by administrative problems. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand the various behaviors of relevant stakeholders around the country's investment in scientific and technological resources.

The strategy of building an innovative country requires the support of national rationality and market rationality, and a rational self-awareness attitude is also the embodiment of the scientific spirit. Only under the dual guidance of the scientific spirit and market rules can independent innovation avoid becoming a slave to nationalist sentiments and avoid becoming a tool for governments at all levels to show their achievements.

Therefore, the government's supervision and investment in major independent innovation projects need to respect professional and independent judgment and ensure a fair resource competition and allocation process. At the same time, it is also a top priority for the government to provide relevant institutional and policy support and accelerate the role of enterprises as the most important subjects of independent innovation in the market economy.

Less than a month after the "Hanxin" incident was first exposed by the media, on February 10, the State Council promulgated the "Outline of the National Medium- and Long-Term Science and Technology Development Plan (2006-2020)". The "Outline" emphasizes deepening the reform of the science and technology system and the economic system, and emphasizes the establishment of a technology innovation system with enterprises as the main body, market-oriented, and combining production, education and research. This can be said to be a good prescription to avoid the "Hanxin" incident in the future, and it also marks an important step for China to build an innovative country. (Zhang Anding)