In their Editorial “China's research culture” (3 September 2010, p. 1128), Y. Shi and Y. Rao commented on the plight of research in China. The situation is even worse than that described in the Editorial. Hundreds of thousands of grassroots professors and researchers are struggling, lacking sufficient financial support for research. As an ordinary professor, I have never sensed that “[g]overnment research funds in China have been growing at an annual rate of more than 20%,” as claimed by the Editorial. The sad fact is that about 30% of full professors and 70% of associate professors in Sichuan University do not have funds for a single research project left in their charge (1). In addition, among those professors with projects, the distribution of funding is extremely biased in favor of officials.
I agree with the Editorial that “[a] simple but important start would be to distribute all of the new funds based on merit, without regard to connections.” Without such a change, seeking connections to win grants, either big or small, will by necessity continue to be rampant in China.
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