The China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), a nongovernmental organization comprising 167 professional societies of researchers and engineers, announced in September that it was revoking awards it had granted to five scientists involved in recent cases of misconduct. According to the statement, engineer Zhou Xinyuan and computer scientist Chen Zheyu, who won the China Youth Science and Technology Award in 1986 and 1990 respectively, lost their honors after being convicted of misappropriating public research funds. Surgeon Sun Beicheng, who won the same award in 1992, clinician Zhao Yuanjin, winner in 2022, and paleontologist Liu Jianni, who won the 11th China Young Women Scientists Award in 2014, must also return their medals, certificates, and prize money. The trio were punished for engaging in improper lobbying while applying for funding via a call for research proposals in 2021. They approached and solicited help from members of the review panel, which is prohibited, and also shared confidential information about the competitive process. Beicheng’s case drew the most attention. In July 2024, the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology publicly accused him of misconduct, just three months after he led a surgery at Anhui Medical University Hospital in Hefei that garnered international attention—his team transplanted a genetically modified pig liver into a patient with liver cancer.
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Honors revoked
Five Chinese researchers stripped of science awards after ethical violations
