State reforms science funding to improve spending efficiency

In the traditional Chinese view, scientists are thought to not care about money but focus solely on their "pure" work.

So when news reports emerged in 2014 that the youngest academician from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, elite transgene researcher Li Ning, had been detained for embezzling and defrauding a research fund of 25 million yuan ($4 million), the nation was shocked.

China's top authority aims to curb academic corruption and increase the efficiency of spending with a recently issued reform on State scientific research funds administration, hoping to reduce academic corruption at the root.