Thread: China has gone too far on human body research

Recently, interesting events kept bumping out of China. Such as the high speed train crash “accident”, or more intriguing news, like the world renowned Chinese neuro-scientist Rao Yi (Yi Rao) was rejected on the first round of Chinese national academician election, which is what I’m going to talk about.
Before further exploit the event, I like to lay out some ground facts here. First, you should know that all the things I describe here are merely bunch of speculations base on the open documents on the internet. I will lay out the inferential details as many as I can, you may interpret them with your own discretion. Secondly, the source links in the following content are mostly written in Chinese, but they are mainly for serious people who want to be more exact toward my briefs, you can ignore them and still enjoy your reading. Thirdly, It might help if you first read my another article titled as “A Perfect Conspiracy Movie Material About Mainland China” or “Ever wonder why communist preserved in China”. And the last, you should know that Chinese real high power people are not like others among the rest of countries, they worry less about losing their power, and already enjoyed the most extravagant, most sensual stuff you could’ve ever imagined, kind of make them very …… bored, so they like to play games a lot.
Now, let’s talk about the real reason why he was washed out of the election while there are more than 12 seats available on life and medical science department(http://www.casad.ac.cn/tzgg/201012/t20101231_3053214.html). Common knowledge is because he got big mouth, especially the time he(dean of the School of Life Sciences at Peking University) and Shi Yigong(dean of the School of Life Sciences at Tsinghua University) made an Editorial criticism on <Science> magazine(Sep. 3rd, 2010) about China’s research culture(http://www.sciencemag.org/content/329/5996/1128.summary). The authority was very pissed because they bought domestic disgrace under the eyes of the world (http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2011-08-22/040323027830.shtml). That could be it, there are total three rounds of review on the election, reject him on first round could send a clear message. But why not send a much clearer one by rejecting him as a candidate? You gona make a fuss anyway(because Shi Yigong returned China a year later than him and yet already made to round two) and why bother insult his scientific achievement，let him wreck on a “peer review” turn? Or it is the only “reasonable” step to kick his ass? And that lead to another question: is he really somewhat academic unqualified?
He himself was very confident about that part, on his earlier TV interview, he thought the main reason was local biologist felt uneasy on oversea returners, he said:”My lab in China was formed in 1994, and most biological academicians came out of there”(http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2011-08-19/074223017384.shtml). What he said in “English” term is: “My students can be academicians, and I’ve raised so many out of them, how can I be unqualified?” But as you know, Chinese have very long tradition of regarding their teachers. Unless Rao is really not so good at some point, you can not, even with conflicts, do that to him on this kind of formal situation. Also record show that his lab in China has no single paper outcome in 2006, 2009 and 2010. How strange! Do you smell something already?
To explain his zero productivity, he said because he had been changing his research direction for recent years (http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=411673). But what about 2006? And yet he still decided to come back China on 2007, and yet at that time Chinese biological community blow him up into the sky for his return, compare him to the scientists who helped China build nuclear bombs and space rocket.
I began to wander: could be he is working on some secret project? If you go to his resume(http://www.nibs.ac.cn/index.php?act=view&id=1, you can see his research object include humans, and this year he published two theses about drosophila(http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v14/n7/full/nn.2836.html) and mice(http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v472/n7341/abs/nature09822.html), but no human related paper whatsoever. Also I’ve dug some comments from his blogs probably left by some of his crew. Here (http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=284628&page=5#comment ) on Feb. 2nd, 2010, comment No.151 (Note: the number may change) said: “After yeas of unbiased observation, I’ve drawn my conclusion, that Rao is a total dawdler, all the big money just pay him to show off in front of media, write some small scientific stories,……”, and No.152 replied: “What you can see is far too limited, not only Professor Rao has done all the things you’ve talked about and more, but also his research work went very well……”.
Ok, that didn’t tell too much, but here(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=392855&page=5#comment ) on Dec. 14th, 2010,comment No.113,some “American”: ”……What contribution can he possibly make to the Peking University by complaining (those topics) on the web? How could he be worthy of the paycheck school gave him? ......”. No.116, some “Not-in-Beijing”: “Don’t you pretend that you really care about university wasting its money! His work is first class, why can’t he also write some blogs……” “Well, tell me about it! What first class work has he ever done since he got to Peking University, aside from doodling on the web?” ”That’s confidential to your hidden-behind-mask type. It will be published on <Nature> or <Science> when the time has come, sure as hell better than your work ten thousand times!(See, if we deduct inflation, must be 100 times better than normal discovery, and the drosophila or mice paper just doesn’t fit!) ……”. Then there was No.199, some “Hush-hush” came alone: ”I’m in Professor Rao’s lab, you two can calm down now. (To ‘American’,)Some people like drinks, some like smoke, and writing essays is Professor Rao’s hobby, same hobby as he had in America, and that is really not your business. As for what kind work he should do, his students should do, all been well supervised, not your concern either. To ‘Not-in-Beijing’, non of us ever said had to publish on <Nature> or <Science>, we care more about quality than which magazine to put on”. And last, ”Not-in-Beijing”: ”I’m sorry about my tone, and I agree most of you said, but don’t approve your view toward magazine”.
Well, still not convinced? All right, there is one more. This is a ceremony video clip (http://video.sina.com.cn/p/news/c/v/2010-01-09/145360464110.html), and Rao was winning the “Most influential people in decade -- science and education field” award. I’ll start translating from 05:36. The MC: ”The question I’m going to ask you is that life in China is still an issue, such as mine collapses, sometimes what they buried seem just a number, we almost forget it represents many vigorously vivid lives(05:43 -- TV show <Lie to me> fans should study his left hand right now), and such as ‘cut chest open to verify pneumoconiosis’(something about a migrant worker got working disease: pneumoconiosis, but the company had hidden his health monitor records and refused to compensate him, and the official evaluation institute only could give him a vague diagnoses despite many hospitals made a very positive conclusion. In desperate, he had doctor cut his chest open to “see it more clearly”, but that move still couldn’t get him paid until media made it public), etc., (the way) life (been treated) is still an issue. As a life scientist, what do you think of life, (especially) today’s life in China?” As you can see, that is a very, very classic type of question toward award-winners for that kind of big moment, to show their noble character, kind heart or something like that. (*)(*)(*)(*)! I’m not a biologist, but I’ve already come up with two classic, perfect answers the moment I heard the question. But our friend here seemed a little bit of paranoid: “I think we study life from basic biological level. Of course life is a very valuable thing for the rest of us, but from scientific angle, life is a very interesting phenomenon. How does it come from a single molecule(cell?) duplication into a complex organism? And gets so interesting like MC, who could improvise a unexpected question to…to…make fun of me(God! What on earth did this serious question make fun of you?), that’s a very interesting puzzle. So our work right now is to watch how many molecules, how many cells have participated in such action. That’s my angle towards life.” MC covered it up: ”It is from such quite interesting answer, dean Rao is reminding society to regard life. It’s just so not easy, isn’t life miracle(blur) so not easy?” Rao finally recovered: “Life is a miracle.” MC: “Then the society should treat miracle well.”
Ok, let me try interpreting Rao’s above reaction. It seemed that Rao had already felt people in his wide circle were very curious about his work; after all knowing he worked on humans isn’t that hard. May be some even know a bit details, or else could he possibly think MC was teasing him? And as a “noble” scientist, he refused to be a hypocrite; so he didn’t say “life is sacred” that kind of thing. And may be he already knew there were casualties(on progress 05:43 of the video clip, his left hand reaction, nervous? grave?) in the whole human research community; and his speech seemed just a way of express his works on humans so far: “I kill no one, I only cracked some skulls at most”.(His intention to face it means no guilt)
...... to be continued

Well, if you want to know about China’s human research, that’s all the circumstantial proof I can give you right now. And the rest of content will be more circumstantial, more speculative, and mainly about Rao himself.
Rao’s early education was somewhat wrecked by China’s “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution”, so his Chinese style “basic scientific trainings”, such as the ability to solve an equation, resolve forces or understand something like relative theory, were far more lower than his current students. Above that, his hands-on skill may also weaker than his peer colleagues(http://edu.ifeng.com/news/detail_2011_01/24/4417578_0.shtml). That makes him very susceptible to “unqualified” attack. But he is creative; he gets insight, he can see through things and seize the root; he has thoughts, ideas, visions, and is willing to share. I guess that made him the deputy director of Northwestern University Neuroscience Research Institute in the first place, which was two years ahead of his tenure. In one word, he is a very good scientist, but more likely an excellent leader.
As for the reason he came back China, we can see through his “Chinese dream”(http://baike.baidu.com/view/1663176.htm). In that chapter, he pointed out one aspect China is better than America, that she is not a religious country, and use a lot space to talk about it. He said: “Religious impact on America is far bigger than one Chinaman could understand and take in. So far and in the foreseeable future, all American presidents are Christians……Such impact not only put many subtle influences on individuals, it also has long term side effects on the whole country. Such as: American religion influences continuously suppress teaching evolution theory in biology classes, and constantly create all kinds of purpose of creationism terms and foist them into regular education system…… ”. (Interestingly, he didn’t mention embryonic stem cell research injunction.) Now we know at least major reason he went back China – he wanted to take the high ground of the unmarked biological territory. But what he didn’t know is that such territory had already been raped and lost most of its virginity. He thought after all the good work he had already done for China, he would be just fine. But the moment he retouched the Chinese soil, he had become commie’s play toy.
After he returned, you will notice he kept criticizing here and there as if “trouble” is his middle name. He talked about research funding system, talked about amateur bureaucrats guiding the professionals, talked about scholarship, professionalism, talked about lowering oversea returner’s initial profession title. But from one of his blogs (http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=265363), which wrote about two pieces he dealt with aftermath of Chinese 1989 state turmoil, we can see that he indeed likes reformation but with certain prudent. Besides, he was about to walk on grey area, shouldn’t he be more quiet? I bet his university supervisor must have told him: “Look, Professor, as a senior member of this school, you got to have some style, some personality man, it’s all about image making-up. You just need to show what you got, just keep talking, since you are working on government secret project, they won’t trouble you as long as you don’t touch some taboos. You see, Tsinghua University already came out one prime minister, we’re counting on you to even some score.”
Meanwhile he must soon have realized that he was under surveillance, he took it easily for his working nature, he even used it as the way to communicate. If you look these two: (http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=244472) and (http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=244496), the later content completed covered previous one. That’s a bit of odd, he used to take his blog kind of seriously, why repeated six thousand words to look casually? We can see that the two all talked about one water conservancy bureaucrat couldn’t hear in one scientist’s opposite voices and had made many mistakes. Looks to me he was strongly advising the high authority to consider his opinion, which he must’ve sent out before. And it seemed that his prayer has been answered, he joyfully wrote another blog(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=247943), talked about Chinese scientists should care more about public welfares, and introduced American biological scientist Ron Vale, who was not only doing great on science, but also had done many charity works (Those three texts are in a row) .
But that’s not all about it, from the way he made a threat by saving an announcement about never participate in national academician election again on his personal computer(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=476143), we can see he felt under more intensive surveillance, and that’s may still not all about it, from here, title as “relax and have some fun”(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=252819), is considered classic mental status being manipulated by “All-time-mind-detector”, which made him think he was a chosen one, and his every move had been guided.
Ok, the game continued. Looks like his vanguard show had finally paid off. Here(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=312946) he reposted an article written by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, memorizing old days with much former president Hu Yaobang, which is colorless, plain as CCTV news report. Why the hell did he put that in his blogs, being a scientist in western that long, I couldn’t believe he has turned so quickly to suck balls like that! The Prime Minister must have mailed to him before he published the article, and the meaning in that is without saying! The Prime Minister also must have told Rao that he had known what was wrong about Chinese scientific society, and complete agreed with Rao’s reform ideas; but there were just too many interest factions involved, he could not touch it easily. Our foolhardy friend here was totally pumped up and agitated; in this blog(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=317374) (titled as a repost but not really a repost), he cited one great Chinese Writer’s word to present his campaign policy: “Chinese people always love consonance, moderation. Such as: a house is too dark, and you want open a window but others don’t agree; so you insist on tearing up the roof, then others suggest open a window……”. Now you can understand why he went on <Science> to talk about China’s research culture. He didn’t realize that once it got political, it could be very brutal; he just kept on making enemies.
His political career seemed on the right track; the “evil god” had finally accepted him, and shown him the vision. His secret research seemed very well too. He felt like stumble into a gold mine, every day was little bit of closer to success; he was glad he had made the right choice. And finally around September 2010, he came up a hung “discovery”. He was so excited, but sadly could tell no one. As there is a saying: Like knows like, he started to continue introducing scientists who were somewhat disqualified but yet made great contribution to the world science. Such as Paul M. Nurse(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=365333), Gregor Johann Mendel(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=377226), and Gregor Johann Mendel (http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=38162, and again Gregor Johann Mendel(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=383849), and two traditional Chinese medicine researcher(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=478156) (He believed the two should get Nobel prize from the start, but others disagree.) But what he didn’t know is that even he went astray on his research road back then, at least one of his students would subtly show him the way.
The authority were “shocked” by his “great discovery”, they strongly urged him to join the hard core research unit. But our Professor was like a young girl who had just tasted the sweetness of forbidden fruit, of course far more ready for SM. He had made threat(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=396579)(titled as “sunflower to the sun, it’s predicting not following”), he even tried self-demoting(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=425224)(titled as “to be or not to be the dean?”). They were very “disappointed”, but eventually they had to let go, and gave him two more peripheral tasks: to study homosexual and aggressive behavior.

Then there was the national academician election coming up. Since his rejection, his supervisors showed little interest to support him; the Prime Minister might, but he seemed everything had to play by the book. And of course his discovery was so big, none of the reviewer even had the clearance to know it ever exists. And then his rivals accused him had no outcome for more than three years, also gossiped about his little disadvantages. He was very angry, he felt betrayed, he swore on his computer, threatened to never participate election again if failed this one. He also pointed out his achievement, he could win Nobel for that!( http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=433929)(titled as “A possible Nobel chemical prize”) Of course he won’t forget his leadership(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=443223)(titled as “Rise and fall of one dynasty: story of one Harvard scientific branch”), implied without him, the neuroscience in China would soon lost it’s edge. And same went to visions(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=450917). He also invited oversee scientists to present academic report, to show he was still connected(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=438542)(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=452787). And also cried help from Prime Minister(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=458817)(Something about a female scientist resist two Nobel prize winner’s court, remain faith on his first lover. You can smell some warning from the content.) Not only that, he even mentioned about joining the communist party(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&view=me&from=space&page= 2), his important role to help government making right decisions(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=463690)(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=465959)(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=473304)(Three blogs all talked about government should support genetic modification despite numerous objections), and his patriotism(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=474690)(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=47469(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=474881)(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=475305)(Four blogs talked about one problem: strong opposition toward Taiwan scientist’s refusal for adding “China” on their joint paper’s address). And then his last desperate threat(http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=2237&do =blog&id=475384)(talked about lower professional title to motivate scientific research).
Meanwhile he had worked harder on his two peripheral tasks, this time he forgot his speech about should focus on quality not quantity, and ignored his handler kept telling him his gay mice and mild drosophila were also consider classified, he thought that’s just the way they tried to get him, and published them anyway(Since his review documents already sent out, that was the only way to let people know) . However what he didn’t know is that the homosexual research is for isolating initiate slaves from others by giving them the gay auras. And the aggressive research is for reducing initiates’ pugnacious desires when they suffer. I bet if he didn’t publish the two, saving all those blogs, he still might pass the first round(They intend to make things look like baptism). But of course he would fail the election eventually.
Despite all that, consider himself lucky, because he is kind of famous, they can’t do too mean to him before they completely hold on to him; not like some talented local young physicist. But that doesn’t matter, he has already trapped on the net he built by himself. Right now, the funds, the known and unknown enemies, enough to direct his research path.


Note 1: The comment system of the website his blogs belong to has changed during my writing, so it won’t direct you to the specific page immediately with the comment links above, you have to turn the pages by yourself.

Note 2: I’ve only browsed his blogs mostly after July 7th, 2009. I got impatient, there were just too many.

PS: If Professor Rao was able to see this, I can give you some advice. You get two options: One, do not fight; when they think you are ready, you can get to the top eventually. Or two, you can try to go abroad again, and be a true, honest scientist. And there is one more tip: whether or not Wen can move up, depends on if he could get you play SM.