Science academy polls have integrity issues

Complaints about malpractices in electing members to the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering had largely been treated as unwarranted speculation until the indictment of Zhang Shuguang, the right-hand man of the now disgraced former minister of railways.

The two proud institutions never even bothered to respond seriously to the corruption allegations.

Given Zhang's confession that he paid more than 23 million yuan ($3.75 million) in bribes for his two bids to become an academician with the CAE, both institutions now want to extricate themselves form a credibility crisis.