Li Sixuan, 28, a Chinese beauty queen and winner of the 2024 Miss Universe Shenzhen title, has been sentenced to 240 days in jail after she pleaded guilty to the use of forged academic qualifications to secure a place at the University of Hong Kong (HKU).
As reported by local news site hk01, Li admitted to two charges: gaining services by deception and having a false instrument. She provided forged records purporting that she had graduated with a linguistics degree from Columbia University in New York. With those records, she was accepted into HKU’s Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics course in 2022.
Her fraud went beyond admission. She also had a forged HKU graduation certificate stating that she had graduated with ‘distinction’. In fact, university documents indicated that she had only passed.
Li said she paid an agent 380,000 yuan (about HK$410,000) to help her get a place at university. She acknowledged graduating from Wuhan College, which is under Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, in 2020 and admitted that she had only done an online Columbia course.
HKU launched its investigation in March 2023, when it spotted discrepancies in some applications that were reportedly submitted by mainland education agents. Columbia University subsequently confirmed through an email that Li was never enrolled with them.
Following HKU’s request for clarification and attempt to meet her, Li declined and made an attempt to escape to mainland China. She was stopped at one of the border checkpoints and was arrested.
Her sentencing took place on May 8 at Shatin Magistrates’ Courts. Magistrate Cheang Kei-hong noted that Li’s conduct was ‘consistently dishonest’ and that she maintained the deception even after enrolling at HKU. She was originally sentenced to 300 days in jail, but her term was reduced to 240 days due to a plea deal.