News about the United States Military Academy at West Point emulating the values espoused by a model Chinese soldier has proven to be bogus, a journalist from the Xinhua News Agency admitted on Sunday.

"I read some American media stories about how cadets at West Point learned from Lei Feng, starting with a song commending him on April 1, 1981. Then I used it as an example of an interesting lead in my articles published in several magazines and materials for my journalism lectures," Li Zhurun, a Xinhua reporter, told the Global Times.

Li said he did not know about the nature of April Fool's Day at that time or the tradition of Western media of publishing onion news.

Lei, a former PLA soldier, has been set as a role model symbolizing selflessness and dedication in China. After his death in 1962, the late Chairman Mao Zedong called on the entire nation to follow Lei's example.

"I wrote this news not out of any political or propaganda purpose. I just felt that my students could learn from the story published by American media, which had a different feature writing style," said Li, who is also a journalism lecturer at several universities. He added that his publications were his own initiative.

However, the news quickly spread across China, triggering discussions on whether West Point has "learned from" Lei.

Tian Zhifang, a former employee of the Chinese Embassy in the US, wrote in the PLA Daily in 2012 that he saw Lei's picture hung in the academy at West Point in 1987, but "we cannot jump to the conclusion that the academy was learning from Lei judging from one picture."

The Global Times reported in 2003 that there was no statue of Lei standing in the campus. There were no courses about Lei either.

Li said that he realized his mistake in 1997 when he read an article which touched on the West Point issue in the Chinese magazine, Du Shu. He added he has reminded students to carefully verify information before publishing news stories.