Recently, multiple departments, including the National Development and Reform Commission ("NDRC"), have issued the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Taking Joint Disciplinary Measures Against Relevant Subjects Held Liable for Discreditable Conduct in the Area of Scientific Research (the "Memorandum").
The Memorandum clarifies targets subject to joint disciplinary measures, what specific disciplinary measures are, ways to take disciplinary measures, dynamic management of disciplinary measures, among other matters. According to the Memorandum, targets subject to joint disciplinary measures are those parties held responsible for serious discreditable conduct in scientific studies and thus included in the list of parties with history of serious discreditable conduct in scientific research. Such a party held responsible will face one or more disciplinary measures, depending on the gravity of the discreditable conduct. Among 43 scheduled disciplinary measures are "imposing restrictions on a target's qualification to apply for or undertake, or disqualifying the target from applying for or undertaking, national science and technology plans (special programs or funds), within a certain period of time" and "cancelling the national science and technology prizes and recovering the reward and the certificate, according to the law". Furthermore, the Memorandum notes that, the Ministry of Science and Technology ("MOST") will regularly provide departments signing this Memorandum with information about targets subject to joint disciplinary measures in the area of scientific research, and dynamically manage the said list of parties held liable for discreditable conduct.