Nature:
Membership in the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the
Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) carries a tremendous
amount of prestige. Not only are members supposed to represent
the country's best researchers, they are often invited to sit
on powerful government committees and offered significant
official rank and access to material wealth. Pursuit of
membership in these societies can involve both intensive
lobbying and bribery. With this year's academy elections
already underway, both societies have promised to clean up the
process. They have published their shortlists and invited
public comment at every stage of selection, which has led to a
quicker and more thorough investigation of allegations of
misconduct. The CAE has also begun to restrict the kind of
well-financed election campaigns that have been run in the past
by nonacademic groups such as companies and government
agencies; this year several nominated government officials and
company executives, including the deputy mayor of Shanghai and
the chairman of oil giant Sinopec, failed to make the CAE
shortlist. Gu Haibin, of the Renmin University of China,
believes that the academies' efforts don't address
guan ben wei, the belief that political power and
status is more important than any other achievement, and until
they do, problems with their elections will continue.
