On May 31, the selection of academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering started. On the same day, Capital Medical University President Rao Yi’s personal WeChat public account “Rao Yi Science” released the article “The first step in the reform of academician election: receiving bribes and handing them in”, which aroused widespread concern in the society.

The article "Rao Yi Science" stated: "The biggest problem with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering is that since this century, every round of candidates has directly given money to academicians with voting rights. ... and the existing academicians know who is The academicians who were elected after paying bribes... Some of the current academicians of many academic departments not only sent money, but other academicians clearly knew that he/she had sent money."

On June 9, a letter signed by "Wang Yong from the Office of the Science Ethics Construction Committee of the Chinese Academy of Sciences" was circulated on the Internet in response to the "Rao Yi Science" public account, calling on "Rao Yi Science" to provide the co-opted academicians it mentioned Evidence and clues related to bribery at work.

Wang Yong said in the letter: "The Office of the Scientific Ethics Construction Committee of the Divisions of the Chinese Academy of Sciences sincerely invites the author of the article on your official account to report the bribery issue in the selection of academicians mentioned in the article to the Committee for the Construction of Scientific Ethics of the Divisions of the Chinese Academy of Sciences or The Disciplinary Inspection and Supervision Team of the National Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in the Chinese Academy of Sciences provided relevant evidence or clues. We will launch an investigation in accordance with the regulations and resolutely investigate to the end. Once the problem is verified, no matter who is involved, it will be dealt with seriously and will not be tolerated."

Letter from the staff of the Office of the Ethics Committee of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

In this regard, a reporter from "China Science Daily" contacted Wang Yong himself, who confirmed the existence of the above-mentioned letter. He told reporters that on the day the payment was made, he sent this letter to the "Rao Yi Science" public account, expressing his welcome for supervision and hoping to provide relevant evidence or clues, but he has not received a reply so far.

The reporter of "China Science Daily" tried to contact "Rao Yi Science", hoping to understand the progress of the incident. As of press time, the reporter has not received any further response from the "Rao Yi Science" public account or the author of the above article. Currently, "The First Step of Academician Election Reform: Receiving and Handing in Bribes" is no longer visible on this platform.

"China Science Daily" noticed that the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering both issued a strict academician co-option work discipline on the day the academician co-option work started.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences issued the "Notice on Serious 2023 Academician Co-election Work Disciplines" and "CAS Academician Co-option Work Code of Conduct for Recommenders", which clearly requires the majority of academicians "not to intercede in any form to say hello, and not to ask other people to be a candidate do not accept requests for intercession and gifts of various names, and do not participate in meetings and activities that may affect the fairness of academician co-election”; Academicians should "consciously resist all kinds of acts of interfering with selection, engaging in public relations, and soliciting votes, and bear the responsibility of reporting", and those who violate the regulations to contact candidates in private, have improper contacts, and exchange interests, "depending on the circumstances, they will be given the right to suspend nomination for a certain period of time and The right to vote until the revocation of the title of academician".