Calls for tobacco apologist ouster

Some Chinese scholars again urged the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) to withdraw the title of academician given to a tobacco researcher, saying they plan to submit evidence to prove his research is flawed and favors tobacco companies.

Xie Jianping, 54, is the deputy director of Zhengzhou Tobacco Research Center, which is funded by the State-owned China National Tobacco Corporation. He was elected to the CAE in 2011 for his studies on low-tar cigarettes, which he claimed are less harmful.

Xie's election aroused public criticism of the academy for honoring the work of someone with close ties to the tobacco industry.

Some academy members who voted for his admission said his research "is a step toward tobacco control."

At a seminar in Beijing Tuesday experts presented materials proving Xie's findings are false, Yang Gonghuan, deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Global Times.

"We have collected proof to show that so-called low-tar cigarettes are basically as harmful as other cigarettes. Results from international research have proved it," Yang said, adding that Xie also knows the truth.

Xie is also a member of the France-based tobacco growers and cigarette makers organization known as CORESTA. Its website says the organization, founded in 1956, "brings world tobacco organizations and scientists together."

In May 2012, some 100 CAE academicians submitted a petition urging the CAE to revoke Xie's membership.

Xie won election to the academy's environment and light textile industry division in late 2011.

"As soon as the CAE published the new member list in December 2011, my organization sent a letter to the academy to urge Xie's disqualification. On January 8, for the sixth time, we again sent a letter," Suo Chao, a media officer with the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control, told the Global Times.

Suo said the CAE replied twice, saying it would investigate the case but it has never made public the result of the investigation and Xie remains an academy member.

Calls from the Global Times to the academy went unanswered.

On Monday the Beijing News reported that Xie would not respond when asked if he believed he was entitled to remain a member of the CAE.

"The CAE is expecting Xie to withdraw from the academy but he has refused," Yang told the Global Times.