Chinese mathematician who killed boss after career flatlined following return from US given suspended death sentence
- Jiang Wenhua stabbed his supervisor Wang Yongzhen and told police he had been the victim of ‘vicious treatment’ at Fudan University in Shanghai
- The academic had been removed from the tenure track programme and given a series of short-term contracts
Jiang Wenhua, a researcher at Fudan University, was found guilty of murdering Wang Yongzhen, the head of the School of Mathematical Sciences, in June 2021.
“Jiang Wenhua premeditated the crime, employing brutal methods that led to grave consequences. He should be subjected to stringent punishment per the law,” a statement from the Shanghai No 2 Intermediate People’s Court posted on the social media platform Weibo said.
The court said Jiang, then aged 39, attacked Wang, his 49-year-old supervisor who was also the school’s party secretary, because of work-related grievances.
The case sparked debate about the treatment of junior academic staff. In a video that showed him being subdued by police, Jiang told officers: “I have been framed a lot of times and I have received vicious treatment in the department.”
Jiang received a PhD in statistics from Rutgers University in the United States in 2009 and returned to China in 2011 to teach at Soochow University.
