A man who feigned disability to occupy another passenger's window seat on a train apologized on Wednesday after his behavior drew fierce criticism online.
The man, surnamed Sun, on Tuesday occupied a woman's window seat on a Beijing-bound high-speed train. He refused to return to his own seat, claiming that he could not stand up, a viral video showed.
Rumor had it that Sun works at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). However, an academy press center employee denied the rumor, saying, "Sun was a Master of Law student at the academy between 2013 and 2016, but never worked there."
Beijing Youth Daily reported that a friend of Sun said Sun has PhD in information economics at a South Korean university and once worked in the education industry.
Sun uploaded a video on Wednesday saying he regretted his actions, and that he violated social morality and harmed the woman. He promised not to make a similar mistake and asked people to give him a chance to reform, news site iqilu.com reported on Thursday.
The rumor also put the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in hot water as many angry netizens confused it with CASS and lashed out on the academy's Weibo page. The CAS differentiated itself from CASS on Thursday.
