(Ecns.cn) – In China, the title of Academician is the highest title conferred on scientists and experts in scientific and technological fields, a role that has long been respected across the nation and beyond. Though the reverence is still there, an unsavory practice is beginning to overshadow the respectability of the title.
After the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) announced its final list of 54 co-opted academicians on Dec. 8, 2011, the selection process was suspected of foul play when it was discovered that a Web user had guessed 32 of the names a month before the announcement, reported the Southern Weekend.
An eerie sense of déjà vu took over, as similar things also took place in 2009. To Wen Yumei, a 77-year-old virologist, professor and academician at the CAE, the election of co-opted academicians is now like a Pandora's Box that opens once every two years, when dozens of candidates hungrily eye the vote and begin angling for support.
This year's election kicked off very early in January as the CAE hoped to add legitimacy to the procedure and help eliminate growing public skepticism and discontent.
As the chairwoman of the 14th International Symposium on Viral Hepatitis and Liver Disease scheduled to be held in Shanghai next July, Academician Wen Yumei is famous for her research of viral hepatitis and its therapeutic vaccine.
In 2011, she was appointed director of the academic committee of Fudan University. Looking back on the past decade, Wen sighed and said that some malpractices have extended into the upper echelons of Chinese academia.
When she was elected as an academician in 1999, Wen said things were much easier. She remembered that the president of Fudan University asked her about the results only a few days before the announcement. Today, the election of academicians is fretted over as much as half a year in advance.
Wen said connections were never a factor to succeeding in such a high-level election in the past, but things have changed greatly in recent years.
Wen admitted that two-thirds of her acquaintances connected to this year's candidates had visited her for consideration when making the vote, most of whom are the candidates' superiors, according to the Southern Weekend.
Wen is not the only academician to be courted in such a way. A friend of hers who is an academician in Hong Kong told Wen that he had received three candidates, all of whom had offered him gifts of support. He had to tell them that he could never accept the gifts, because they could land him in court, as Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption is very effective.
Jin Yong, professor of chemical engineering and a CAE academician, complained that it is very difficult to deal with the behavior of colleagues who solicit votes by sending gifts, and that he can only preserve his moral integrity by refusing them all. It even sometimes hurts relations with genuine friends, he said.
When asked about the most valuable gift she had ever received, Wen Yumei only said it that it was not possible to send it back by mail, so she had to return it via airplane.
The CAE has apparently taken notice of the problem and released three open letters on its Web site, sending a warning to candidates who intend to interfere with the election.
Xu Rigan, vice president of the CAE, revealed that 61.9 percent of academicians think that asking voters for support and other electioneering activities have seriously disturbed the process and affected the image of academia.
CAE Academician Zhou Shining pointed out that some excellent candidates have even missed opportunities after being publically maligned by competitors.
Wen Yumei said the motive for recommending a candidate is to gain social resources, as academicians have a much bigger say when tabling a proposal or applying for project funds.
China launched the program of electing academicians across the country in 1994. This year the total number of CAE academicians expanded to 783.
