The New York Times reports (paywall) on what has led to China becoming the world’s capital of science fraud, as indicated by it retracting “more scientific papers because of faked peer reviews than all other countries and territories put together” since 2012. The problem became especially visible earlier this year when China’s Ministry of Science and Technology launched an investigation into the retraction of 107 papers from a prominent journal of biology. Based on conversations with scientists in China and other sources in Chinese academia, the Times concludes:

“As in the West, career advancement can often seem to be based more on the quantity of research papers published rather than the quality. However, in China, scientists there say, this obsession with numerical goal posts can reach extremes. Compounding the problem, they say, is the fact that Chinese universities and research institutes suffer from a lack of oversight, and mete out weak punishments for those who are caught cheating.”

This is not to say that China hasn’t made great advances in science, nor that China is failing to attract some of the world’s best scientists. Here are just a few stories from the past couple months:

• China is leading the world in human genome editing, a potentially revolutionary technology that has many bioethicists on edge.
• Chinese scientists have invented rice that can grow in salty water, which has the potential to greatly increase the amount of arable land in the country. The largest-yet harvest of this new variety of rice is hitting the shelves next month, SCMP reports.
• Finally, China is making definite progress in reversing a longstanding brain drain, as many top students are now returning to China for work instead of staying abroad. The Times notes that these students may be bringing back best practices and raising ethical standards, an influence which combined with more sophisticated algorithms to root out plagiarism may help to stem the fraud.

• China’s economy and the 19th Party Congress
  China: Central banker gives gravity-defying 7% growth forecast / Fortune
  Message or massage? What’s the value of a price signal before China’s Communist Party congress? / SCMP
  China’s Communist party congress: 3 investment themes to watch / FT (paywall)
  Xi’s report card – has met China economic goals but can he keep it going? / Reuters
  China’s party congress will matter for investors this time / FT (paywall)
• Artificial intelligence (AI)
  Huawei hosts private AI confab in Vancouver / The Information (paywall)
  Huawei Technologies organized an invite-only gathering in Vancouver last week to talk AI. Guests included people from Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.
  Former IBM Watson chief scientist joins JD / China Tech News
• Agriculture
  China dairy giants shake off scandal to become blue chips / Bloomberg
• Airports
  Beijing proudly unveils mega-airport due to open in 2019 / Reuters
• U.S.-China trade relations
  New energy vehicles top China’s list of subsidy questions for U.S. / Reuters
• Dalian Wanda
  Wanda golf courses in China resort shut down by authorities / Bloomberg

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