Top think tank stresses clean member elections

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), one of China's top think tanks, on Saturday warned its members to resist corruption in electing new members.

The CAS said in a statement that a preliminary review was concluded with 157 candidates nominated for this year's election.

The 157 candidates, specialists in fields ranging from mathematics and physics to earth sciences, will compete for no more than 65 vacancies.

This year's election is the first since the range of people eligible to vote on new CAS members was reduced to include only current CAS members and members of certain academic societies.

The number of non-professional members will be reduced and government officials will generally not be considered eligible, the statement said, adding that new members will only be finalized after a vote by the whole academy.

A scientific ethics committee under the CAS Academic Division called on CAS members to resist administrative interference, not to accept lobbying or gifts in any form, not to participate in any activities that may affect the fairness of the election and not to leak information on the procedure.

The CAS elects new members every two years. The final list of new members will be published by the end of this year. Endi