Sideline vested interests to reform China’s research

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  • Qilin Zhang0
  1. Qilin Zhang
    1. Southwest University, Chongqing, China.

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Ming Li’s World View proposes that Chinese universities decouple talent ‘titles’ achieved by certain academics from the way in which resources are allocated between researchers (see M. Li Nature 656, 540; 2026). Li also warns that performance indicators that have been suppressed to reduce bias often simply reappear under new names. I agree, but I doubt that universities can enact this decoupling, because their administrators are obvious beneficiaries of the metric-based allocation system.

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Nature 657, 566 (2026)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-02797-7

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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