Chinese academies promise cleaner elections

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.