Did Xi Jin Ping Recieve "Help" At University?

An interesting report on The Australian a couple of days ago says that Xi Jin Ping may have cheated been "helped" while he was writing his final dissertation.  Also, the actual content didn't have that much to do with the actual degree that he was studying for.  While Xi was allegedlystudying for his law degree, the thesis he submitted was entitled "A Tentative Study on China's Rural Marketisation".

In the text, Mr Xi thanks three academics and a researcher "for giving me great help while I was writing the paper". It cites as sources 97 books in Chinese and 26 in English. Mr Xi's official biography says the degree was granted through an "on the job" programme in Marxist theory and ideological education for work done between 1998 and 2002.

Given the huge amount of cheating helping that goes on during the insanity that is gaokao week, it's probably not much of a surprise that the leader of this great nation (China, in case you're wondering) did a bit of cut and pasting from Wikipedia in his younger days too.

Xi was not alone in having trouble fitting in his studies, since he was also working at the governor of Fujian, and earning pocket money as deputy leader of the province's Communist party.  It a wonder that he found time to attended lectures at all...

Literary scholars found several areas in the 161-page dissertation that would raise academic eyebrows - among them what seemed a lack of original research by Mr Xi.

They said it appeared to combine extracts from government reports with translations from foreign works in a leaden Marxist style, suggesting it was drafted by a group and finalised by the author.

Well, that's what communism is, right?