China should upgrade its punishment for academic misconduct, a chronic problem threatening the nation’s innovation push, according to an opinion piece in People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party.
The article published on Monday said that despite efforts to strengthen research integrity, misconduct was still frequent, in part because of weak penalties.
Such violations “waste scarce research resources, undermine a fair and competitive research environment, shake the foundations of technological innovation, and damage the international reputation of China’s scientific community”, the article said.
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It argued that academic dishonesty could only effectively be deterred by significantly increasing punishment.
The call comes as China accelerates its hi-tech drive, prioritising technological self-sufficiency and innovation in response to its escalating technological competition with the United States.
Beijing has made disruptive technology – innovations that significantly alter established industries and markets – a focus as it pushes for dominance in emerging markets ahead of Western powers.
This year, Beijing has also accelerated the technological arms race with a second consecutive 10 per cent increase in science spending, allocating 398 billion yuan (US$55 billion) in central government spending for 2025.
This target allocates an unprecedented amount of funding for research and development and makes science the top growth sector in government spending for those two consecutive years, surpassing diplomacy, public security and education.
Earlier this month, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the Chinese state body in charge of allocating funds for basic research, announced how it had handled 15 misconduct cases, which involved 13 universities and 24 individuals. The cases included violations such as breaching review protocols, buying and selling papers, plagiarism and the unauthorised labelling of grant support.
Citing the foundation’s announcement, the People’s Daily commentary said the types of misconduct exposed were “diverse, egregious in nature and deeply thought-provoking”.
According to the NSFC, one case involved a researcher from a university in Jiangxi province found to have used multiple fake identities to apply for several research grants between 2008 and 2024.
In another case that involved researchers from a university in Jiangsu province, the investigation found that 10 papers used several identical images for different interpretations, indicating falsified data, NSFC said.
“Scientific research is a noble pursuit of discovering truth and knowledge, and seeking truth from facts is its most basic requirement,” the People’s Daily article said, adding that academic misconduct “runs counter to the spirit of science and innovation culture strongly advocated by the party and the country”.
Last year, the NSFC reported 25 such cases involving dozens of universities – including top-tier institutions – research institutes and hospitals.
The article said a key reason that research misconduct remained a problem was that penalties were too lenient so the “rewards” seemed tempting.
“Judging from recent cases, the consequences for offenders have often been limited to retrieving research funds or issuing a public reprimand – far from a strong deterrent. Therefore, only by imposing harsher penalties and making the cost of fraud much greater than its potential gains can we truly eliminate this entrenched problem,” it said.
Xie Maosong, a senior researcher at Tsinghua University’s National Institute of Strategic Studies, said academic misconduct “damages the overall research ecosystem of innovation”.
Noting increasing national investment in science and technology, Xie, who is also a senior fellow at the Taihe Institute in Beijing, said greater emphasis had been put on research integrity, especially in recent years, with related training delivered every year.
“The country is stepping up its efforts to punish misconduct to create a deterrent effect. This is also important in the context of the ongoing US-China strategic rivalry, where the US is attempting technological decoupling,” he said.
“In terms of tackling critical and core technologies, the country has set higher demands and the NSFC is supposed to align with this national strategy. If individuals involved in these grant projects commit fraud or lack integrity in their research, it could ultimately undermine the country’s strategic goals.”
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