FOR

Li Qing

Wuhan Evening News

Xie shouldn't have suffered from questions and criticism. It's not fair to him. First, he is not a scientist bought over by tobacco companies but has been a tobacco researcher for a very long time.

Second, what he does is not promoting smoking but is reducing the harm of smoking to the greatest extent. Shouldn't he be praised for trying to do so? If he can play a positive role in protecting people's health by developing low-tar cigarettes, why can't he be elected as an academician?

Han Qing

Yangtze Evening News

We shouldn't mix science with morality and take out our complaints and anger on an innocent individual. Decrying Xie as a "tobacco academician" or even "killer academician" is moral criticism and is beyond science. If we want to judge whether low-tar is effective in reducing the risks of smoking, we should observe data and statistics of experiments.

So far as I know, the election system of the CAE doesn't restrict candidates' research fields. Besides, only academicians can vote for candidates without collecting public opinion. If people have complaints about those rules, they can discuss them with the CAE and suggest revising them. But it's a totally different issue from Xie's election. People shouldn't have criticized Xie based on rules that they assume appropriate. Also, they shouldn't have criticized Xie as if they are more noble than him.

Wang Guorong

Qianjiang Evening News

Smoking is bad for health. Therefore, we do need research on how to reduce the risk of it to the greatest extent. It's unrealistic to eliminate the tobacco industry within a short period of time or to ask all smokers to quit as soon as possible. If smoking can't be banned for now, isn't it a good thing to research how to reduce its harm? Before being elected, Xie received many national prizes and has been an outstanding contributor for China's tobacco system for 19 years. He didn't encourage people to smoke but has made efforts on how to reduce its harm. There are hundreds of millions of smokers in China, and studies on how to reduce the harm of it are quite necessary.

If you have an opinion on smoking, you shouldn't take your anger out on Xie. It's not right to give him such harsh criticism.