Mainland Chinese Beauty Queen Sentenced To 240 Days' Jail For Forging Uni Cert

28-year-old Li Si Xuan, who once won a Shenzhen beauty pageant, was recently revealed to have forged her academic qualifications in order to further her studies at the University of Hong Kong (HKU).

In 2021, Si Xuan applied to HKU, claiming she had completed her bachelor’s degree course in linguistics at New York’s Columbia University. She was also able to provide the necessary documents and certificates needed for application.

She later gained admission to HKU, and was enrolled under their Master’s in Applied Linguistics programme.

In 2024, after receiving complaints about students forging their documents for admission, HKU conducted an investigation on the matter. Si Xuan was discovered to be amongst the group.

According to the University of Columbia, Si Xuan never studied there.

Si Xuan was later found to have also falsified her Master’s degree, changing her results from a ‘pass’ to a ‘distinction’. The date on her certificate was also inaccurate.i It stated she graduated from the Masters’ programme on June 12, when the actual graduation ceremony took place on June 11.

HKU attempted to arrange a meeting with Si Xuan last June but she refused to meet them. They reported the case one month later after terminating Si Xuan’s status as a HKU student.

Si Xuan was arrested the next day.

She told authorities she had graduated from Zhongnan University of Economics and Law in Wuhan in 2020, and confessed to hiring the services of an agency named ‘Academic Emperor’ (学术帝).

She paid a total of 380K yuan (S$68K) for them to arrange for her to study in Hong Kong.

According to her statement, the agency arranged for her to attend an online course taught by the University of Columbia. She was then informed by the agency she had 'graduated'.

Si Xuan has since admitted to two offences in court. One, for forging documents in order to enter HKU, and two, for falsifying her results on her Masters’ graduation certificate.

She confessed to conducting the fraudulent acts “through the help of external services”.

After conducting an investigation on Si Xuan’s case, the court revealed there were a total of 93 students who gained admission into the Applied Linguistics course the same year Si Xuan enrolled. Since there were 95 spots open that year, they concluded that Si Xuan’s actions did not affect the admission of any potential candidates.

Si Xuan’s defense attorney also pleaded for leniency on her behalf, stating she was “deeply troubled” by the case. They also added there was no evidence proving Si Xuan had used the falsified documents for illegal gains.

On May 8, Si Xuan was sentenced to 240 days' jail. The sentence was reduced from 300 days to 240 days on the account of her confession, with 40 of those days to be served separately from the 200-day term.

Was all that effort put into lying really worth it in the end?