China: A new black business flourishes

In China, to publish an academic essay is extremely difficult for simply one reason: Too many people are compelled to publish essays in a miserably limited number of journals. Reluctantly, contributors have to pay certain sum of money to get their essays published. But demand still overwhelmingly exceeds supply. Therefore, a new type of brokers came into existence: they help polish, rewrite and publish essays for blind profits. Academics
debate ^[1] heatedly [zh], but a high-rank official openly supports ^[2] charging the contributors [zh].