Scientist, educator, businessman, criminal, these words are all labels on Chu Fitness.
From a simple rural boy to an internationally renowned scientist, to a "criminal" in prison, and finally to a leading figure in the world of science and technology. His life is like a movie with ups and downs, from the altar to hell, and finally again.
What exactly did he go through in his life? Why did he go to prison?
A whistleblower letter
In 2012, a whistleblower letter suddenly broke Chu Jian's peaceful life. This anonymous whistleblower letter circulated wildly on the Internet, accusing Chu Jian of plagiarism, embezzlement, transfer of assets...
At this time, Chu Jian didn't take this matter to heart, he thought that he was not afraid of shadows, these slanderous words were just crazy moves made by people who were jealous of him, but with the fermentation of the situation, a bigger storm of public opinion swept in.
In March 2013, leaders, academicians and other relevant people from hundreds of colleges and universities across the country received more detailed report letters. These letters claimed that Chu Jian had embezzled 130 million yuan and that he had also used his position to engage in relations between men and women, and that there were serious problems in his work style.
At that time, Chu Jian was still the vice president of Zhejiang University, and it was a critical period for him to run for academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Subsequently, the procuratorate filed a supplementary case against him on suspicion of bribery. On November 5, 2013, Chu Jian was formally arrested. Chu Jian's candidacy for academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, scheduled for October 30, 2013, has also been resolved.
After Chu Jian was arrested, many people came out to cry out for Chu Jian, and Chu Jian himself actively appealed in the court. During this period, four academicians of the National Academy of Engineering jointly signed a letter requesting that Chu Jian's case be resentenced. Chu Jian's daughter also showed evidence that she had been harassed and intimidated, claiming that as early as 2012, someone called her and told her father to be careful when he went out.
Chu Jian was sentenced to prison on the grounds that he had illegally founded the Central Control Group. It is true that the Central Control Group was established by Chu Jian's investment, but it is affiliated with Zhejiang University, so the research projects and approval funds are all decided after the school leaders vote, how can Chu Jian embezzle and accept bribes in this situation?
As the saying goes, the tree is big, and Chu Jian is so obviously targeted, which is also inseparable from the achievements he made in the first half of his life.
The rise of teenage genius
In 1963, Chu Jian was born in a remote mountain village in Chun'an County, Zhejiang Province. His father was a surgeon and his mother was an elementary school teacher. Although the family conditions were good at the time, the parents chose a more difficult path - they responded to the call of the country and went to the mountains to support the construction.
The young Chu Jian followed his parents to this desolate land. Here, he witnessed the hard work of his parents to change the backward appearance of the local area, and also deeply realized the power of knowledge to change destiny. His parents often told him stories about scientists, which sparked his thirst for knowledge.
Chu Jian has shown an extraordinary talent for learning. At the age of 5, he was sent to school early by his parents. He is always the youngest in the class, but he is also the fastest learner and the most understanding. His primary school teacher recalled: "Chu Jian was a quick learner and good at drawing inferences. His ability to learn far exceeds that of his peers. "
Chu Jian's excellent performance made him skip grades all the way. When he was 15 years old, when the college entrance examination was resumed, he was admitted to Zhejiang University with the first place in the county. After entering university, he was keenly aware that automation technology would be the key to the future of industrial development. However, at that time, there was a huge gap between China and developed countries in this area. Chu Jian secretly made up his mind to contribute to narrowing this gap.
In this way, Chu Jian chose to major in automation, and went to Japan to study in 1986, becoming the first Sino-Japanese joint doctoral student of Zhejiang University.
In 1989, Chu Jian returned to China after completing his studies and returned to Zhejiang University. He devotes all his energy to research in the field of automation. In just three years, he has made a name for himself in the academic world and won a number of national scientific research awards, the most important of which is the National Science and Technology Progress Award nine times.
Chu Jian's talent has been widely recognized by the academic community. Many top universities at home and abroad threw olive branches to him, but he chose to stay at his alma mater, Zhejiang University. For Chu Jian, Zhejiang University is not only the starting point of his studies, but also the harbor where he determines the direction of his lifelong research.
In 1993, at the age of 30, Chu Jian was hired as a full professor at Zhejiang University, becoming one of the youngest professors at the school at that time. In this year, he also participated in the establishment of Zhejiang University Industrial Automation Company, the predecessor of SUPCON Technology Group.
Chu Jian knows that in order to truly promote the development of China's automation technology, academic research alone is far from enough. He decided to step into a whole new field – entrepreneurship. In 1993, with the support of Zhejiang University, Chu Jian and several other like-minded partners founded SUPCON Technology Group.
In the early days of the business, Chu Jian and his team faced great challenges. At that time, China's automation control system market was almost monopolized by foreign companies. Many people are skeptical of domestic systems, believing that they are not comparable to imported products.
But Chu Jian was not discouraged. He leads the team to work around the clock to continuously improve technology and product quality. Their efforts soon paid off. The automatic control system developed by ZPCG has gradually won the recognition of the market and broken the monopoly of foreign enterprises.
Chu Jian's success has not only saved Chinese companies a lot of equipment investment, but more importantly, it has won China's voice in the field of automation. The rise of SUPCON marks that China is no longer completely dependent on imports and has begun to have core technologies with independent intellectual property rights.
In order to protect this hard-won achievement, the state has even issued a policy to strictly prohibit foreign investors from acquiring the Central Control Group. Chu Jian and his team have become the "national team" of China's automation industry.
If it weren't for the whistleblower letter incident, Chu Jian might still be shining in the Central Control Group. He persevered in prison for nearly three years of appealing, and until 2016, Chu Jian was still trapped in prison.
Phoenix Nirvana
On January 18, 2017, Chu Jian was released after completing his sentence. After being released from prison, he was not defeated, but showed a stronger fighting spirit. He immediately returned to the Central Control Group, which he had founded, and began to work on revitalizing himself.
Chu Jian's return has injected new vitality into the Central Control Group. Under his leadership, the company was soon restored to its former vitality. Just one year later, SUPCON launched a new industrial operating system, supOS, and made a stunning appearance at the 2nd World Intelligent Manufacturing Conference.
What's even more surprising is that in May 2018, the project led by Chu Jian received 27.58 million yuan of national research funding. The recognition of the state once again proves the strength of Chu Jian, and under the leadership of Chu Jian, SUPCON Group was successfully listed in 2020.
Today, Chu Jian is still active in the front line of scientific research and industry. On June 13, 2023, he was invited to give a special lecture on "AI Empowering the High-quality Development of New Industrialization" at the "Economic and Information Lecture Hall" held by the Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology. In his speech, Chu Jian expounded his insights in simple terms on the application process and development trend of industrial intelligence, the current situation and challenges of new industrialization in the process industry, and the accelerated development of new quality productivity promoted by industrial AI.
Even though he is over the age of six, Chu Jian still maintains strong energy and leads his team on the front line. The three years of being slandered did not hit him much, but confirmed his ability.
In the future, he will also take the Central Control Group to continue to shine for the country.
Reference Links
Led by top scientists, Ningbo Industrial Internet Research Institute was unveiled in Haishu! Ningbo Comprehensive
Interview with Chu Jian, founder of ZPCON From hardware to digital intelligence, ZPCON has been a "big country" in the process industry for 30 years
Chu Jian, the founder of ZKTeco, was invited to attend the "Economic and Information Lecture Hall" of Hangzhou Economic and Information Bureau and gave a special lecture on Panorama.com