One of China’s most renowned scientists has been cleared of academic fraud after a yearlong probe into his work by the Chinese Communist Party. The education ministry began investigating immunologist Cao Xuetao in late 2019 after a U.S. microbiologist raised the alarm about dubious research in more than 60 of his papers. Elisabeth Bik flagged that Cao’s work often appeared to be duplicated or fabricated and contained numerous repeated images. 

Bik’s accusation was a humiliating discovery for the Chinese Communist Party, particularly given Cao had been recently appointed chairman of the CCP’s research integrity initiative. 

Though he has now been cleared, Cao has nonetheless been told to correct all errors in the papers flagged by Bik. He’s also barred from supervising graduate students or applying for funding for a year and has been sent an official “letter of criticism” from the Chinese Academy of Engineering. 

In an interview with the Nature science journal, Cao described the investigation as grueling but did not respond to allegations that his work had been deliberately fabricated.