I wish I could say this surprised me:

“These days, China is lavishing money on Mr. Science. But without the checks and balances provided by Mr. Democracy, the corruption plaguing the rest of the system is infecting the reputation of Chinese science.”

I review many articles from China and “text reuse” is a common theme I’ve seen. I think it’s partially due to the language barrier. It’s much easier to copy text then re-synthesize and translate new.

The amount of money being spent on science in China currently must also be placing huge pressure on scientists to perform. That generally doesn’t end well either. I hope they can figure out the regulatory part soon. All this money in science is somewhat rare these days and it would be a shame to see it wasted.

At any rate, an interesting read:

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/03/138937778/plagiarism-plague-hinders-chinas-scientific-ambition?ft=1&f=1007