美国NIH认为，美国科研正遭受系统性的威胁

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近日，美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）发布了国外势力影响科研诚信的报告（ACD Working Group for Foreign Influences on Research Integrity），认为美国的科研正遭受“系统性的威胁”，并要求各资助单位制定流程和政策，启动调查所在单位研究者的研究项目是否有国外支持和国际合作，是否存在他国利益。

对此北京大学讲席教授、理学部主任饶毅致信美国NIH“the so-call report by the NIH working group on foreign influences”，内容如下：

Dear Dr. Collins,

       I would like to inform your “working group” of the truth so that they do not become willing collaborators of Trumpism.

       As reported by Biocentury, this working group was designated to find problems and is now writing a report.

       It would be a grotesque distortion if your working group concludes that there was systematic influence by the Chinese Thousand Talent Program. The opposite is closer to the truth: the US is the side which benefits from the major problem of the Thousand Talent Program.

       Three scholars and I proposed that China launches an international recruitment in science, which we did not give a name but was given the awkward name. This is a simple recruitment effort which other countries have also done, such as the Canadian chair program.

      From the 1980s to 2010, Chinese universities and institutes have been semi-depleted in science because large numbers of Chinese scientists have emigrated. It is very reasonable for China to recruit when resources allow. The other reason is for China to pay back to the world with increasing support for science: most advances in sciences contribute to humankind, rather than limited to one country. It is so ironic when this contribution is now distorted by Trumpism prevalently in the US.

       Furthermore, one major problem with the program is that a fraction of the putative recruits hesitate about returning to China full time, some of them may need a transition, some may intentionally take labs and funds in China but keeps living and working in the US. Whether this is allowed is decided by individual institutions, and not encouraged by the central government. If fact, the government wants to clean up this kind because it is viewed as a waste of Chinese resources. Some institutions intentionally hide such cases from the government so that they do not get blamed. For universities such as Peking, we do not allow that. When such cases arise, China usually loses because such individuals have full time jobs in the US, and thus stick to US rules and laws, but not those in China where they only have part time jobs. Some even take such advantages only to visit their families.

       Thus, not only the Thousand Talent program never tries to steal intellectual properties, but its major problem actually hurts China. It does not hurt the US at all, when US scientists get extra funding and resources. Research in biomedical sciences leads to papers published in journals accessible to all scientists.

       If your working group has scientists with integrity and common sense, its report will never say the otherwise. It would require morally corrupt scientists to bend to Trumpism and sound alarms where no danger exists.

       It is sad for many to witness the moral decay of the US, but I still have hope for US scientists. The most basic requirement for any scientist is to find truth and stick to it.

 When history looks back at our era, it will judge what role NIH has played.

 

Yi Rao, Ph.D.
Professor and Director, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research
Dean, Division of Sciences, Peking University
Director, Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing
China