Introduction

There are basically two types of academies—the pure honorific societies like the Royal Society of London and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of the United States, and honorific societies like the French Academy of Sciences and the former Soviet Academy of Sciences which combine research with honorary activities. Both types of academies confer honors upon outstanding scientists to acknowledge their achievements as well as their value as individuals. While such recognition is supposed to be nonpolitical and based on merit alone, this has not been the case under totalitarian regimes—notably the former Soviet Union where political criteria became at least as important and maybe even more so than scientific reputation (Graham 1967, 1977; Kojevnikov 1996; Tolz 1997; Vucinich 1956, 1984). This book examines a similar but rarely studied case—the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).