bodyType

customContents

entityId

printArticlePageQuery

filter

article

body

urlAlias

articleSectionsContent

articleSeoArticle

articleSourceHeaderArticle

contentSchemaRenderContent

contentSubHeadlineContent

contentHeadlineContent

mainImagePrintArticleArticle

authorBlockPrintArticleArticle

contentSponsorTagContent

articlePianoPaywallContent

scmpYoutubeContent

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

query printArticlePageQuery(
  $entityId: String!
  $customContents: [CustomContentInput]
  $bodyType: BodyFormatTypeEnum
) {
  article(filter: {entityId: $entityId}) {
    entityId
    body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
      json
    }
    urlAlias
    ...articleSectionsContent
    ...articleSeoArticle_3o8td4
    ...articleSourceHeaderArticle
    ...contentSchemaRenderContent
    ...contentSubHeadlineContent
    ...contentHeadlineContent
    ...mainImagePrintArticleArticle
    ...authorBlockPrintArticleArticle
    ...contentSponsorTagContent
    ...articlePianoPaywallContent
    ...scmpYoutubeContent
    ...hooksTrackPageViewArticle
    id
  }
}

fragment articlePianoPaywallContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksPaywallPromiseContent
}

fragment articleSectionsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      ...helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection
      ...entityLink
      name
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment articleSeoArticle_3o8td4 on Article {
  ...hooksArticleSeoArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersGetArticleTypeArticle
  entityId
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
  summary {
    text
  }
  subHeadline {
    text
  }
  body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
    text
  }
  keywords
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  topics {
    name
    entityId
    id
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  images {
    style(filter: {style: "768x768"}) {
      url
    }
  }
  readingTime
}

fragment articleSourceHeaderArticle on Article {
  urlAlias
  ...entityLink
}

fragment authorBlockPrintArticleArticle on Article {
  ...defaultArticleDateContent
  ...authorNamesArticle
}

fragment authorNameAuthor on Author {
  ...entityLink
  name
  entityUuid
}

fragment authorNamesArticle on Article {
  authorLocations
  authors {
    entityId
    location
    ...authorNameAuthor
    id
  }
}

fragment blockquoteQuoteContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment contentHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  socialHeadline
  ...contentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
}

fragment contentNewsletterWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
    id
  }
  sections {
    value {
      relatedNewsletters {
        ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
        id
      }
      id
    }
  }
  ... on Article {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment contentSchemaRenderContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...blockquoteQuoteContent
  ...imageContent
  ...inlineWidgetContent
  ...photoGalleryWidgetContent
  ...scmpYoutubeContent
}

fragment contentShareWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  shortUrl
  socialHeadline
  headline
}

fragment contentSponsorTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentSubHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  subHeadline {
    json
  }
  summary {
    json
  }
  ...contentSchemaRenderContent
}

fragment defaultArticleDateContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksArticleDateUtilsContent
}

fragment entityLink on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  __typename
  entityId
  entityUuid
  urlAlias
  urlRedirect {
    toUrl
    id
  }
  application {
    entityId
    id
  }
  ... on Section {
    fullSectionPath {
      entityId
      id
    }
    parentSection
  }
  ...helpersAppBarVariantBase
  ...helpersApplicationBase
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersAppBarVariantBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsLiveArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...helpersSectionContent
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersApplicationBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
}

fragment helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection on Section {
  name
}

fragment helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle on Article {
  entityId
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  disableOffPlatformContent
  sponsorType
  published
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment helpersCheckIsLiveArticle on Article {
  flattenTypeIds
  liveArticle {
    status
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    paywallTypes {
      entityUuid
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsStyleArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersGetArticleTypeArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        entityId
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter on Newsletter {
  entityId
  name
  alternativeName
  description {
    text
  }
  summary {
    text
  }
  homepageDescription {
    text
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle on Article {
  authors {
    types
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersStyleSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersUseContentSponsorContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    sponsor {
      ...sponsorTagSponsor
      name
      type
      id
    }
    id
  }
  ... on Article {
    sponsorType
  }
  ...helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent
}

fragment hooksArticleDateUtilsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  createdDate
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
}

fragment hooksArticleSeoArticle on Article {
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle
  entityId
  headline
  socialHeadline
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
  images {
    generic_og: style(filter: {style: "og_image_scmp_generic"}) {
      url
    }
    styles(filter: {styles: ["og_image_posties_article", "og_postmag", "og_image_style", "og_image_scmp_analysis", "og_image_scmp_explainer", "og_image_scmp_editorial", "og_image_scmp_fact_check", "og_image_scmp_debate", "og_image_scmp_live", "og_image_scmp_obituary", "og_image_scmp_opinion", "og_image_scmp_review", "og_image_scmp_series", "og_image_scmp_generic"]}) {
      url
      style
    }
    type
  }
  urlAlias
}

fragment hooksContentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        name
        entityId
        description {
          text
        }
        id
      }
    }
    ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  }
  flag
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  ...hooksContentHelperContent
}

fragment hooksContentHelperContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle
  ...helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle
  ...helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle
  flag
}

fragment hooksPaywallPromiseContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment hooksTrackPageViewArticle on Article {
  entityId
  publishedDate
  headline
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  entityUuid
}

fragment imageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  ...checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent
}

fragment inlineWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentNewsletterWidgetContent
}

fragment mainImagePrintArticleArticle on Article {
  images {
    title
    url
    isSlideshow
    size_652x446: style(filter: {style: "652x446"}) {
      url
    }
  }
}

fragment photoGalleryDialogContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment photoGalleryWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...photoGalleryDialogContent
}

fragment scmpYoutubeContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  publishedDate
}

fragment sponsorTagSponsor on Sponsor {
  name
  type
  images {
    url
  }
}


sections

types

disableOffPlatformContent

sponsorType

published

headline

socialHeadline

authors

images

publishedDate

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

keywords

topics

readingTime

authorLocations

entityUuid

Stephen Chen

When Hou Jianguo takes on his next job, he will be assuming one of the world’s biggest roles in science.
Hou has been named the Communist Party secretary of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and will be the next president of the academy.
The chemist will oversee nearly 70,000 researchers. He will also have to take calls around the clock from the most powerful people in the country, and he will have to promote international cooperation amid boycotts, sanctions and suspicions.
Hou will have to manage an organisation with an annual budget of nearly 100 billion yuan (US$15.2 billion), as well as research that runs the gamut from obscure flowering species in Africa to quantum computers and laser technology.
It is a big job that has been entrusted to a scientist who spent most of his life dealing with “small things”.


Born in 1959 in the small fishing town of Pingtan, in the southeastern province of Fujian, Hou began his working life as a fitter at a small factory fixing small machines.
He worked there for three years before winning a place to study chemistry at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, Anhui province. As a physical chemist, he studied atoms, molecules and subatomic particles, manipulating them to create crystals and alloys.
He rose steadily through the university’s ranks to become its president in 2008, but he dined regularly with students, responding to their needs, according to a China Youth Daily report in 2015. Some students complained about summer heat, so he installed air conditioners in their classrooms. Some said they disliked public baths. He then put a hot water shower in every dormitory.
“He’s a man of details,” one of his former colleagues was quoted in the report as saying.
Chinese research ship launched to boost exploration activities, including in South China Sea
At the time, Hou’s philosophy was that a research institute should not do everything. “Just do a small number of things and do it the best,” he said in a 2010 interview.
However, the CAS job is on a much grander scale. The exact number of employees is a secret but some estimates put it in the hundreds of thousands.
It also dwarfs in output other major science and technology players such as Harvard University, the Max Planck research institutes and MIT. In the year from August 2019, CAS researchers published 5,880 papers in leading journals, more than those from the Harvard and Max Planck institutes combined, according to Nature Index.
The tasks the researchers must confront are also huge – CAS has been asked to deal with almost every problem associated with its development. Air pollution? Build a smog tower to clean it up. Energy shortage? Try an artificial sun with nuclear fusion. Government corruption? Use artificial intelligence to monitor officials’ social activities. Covid-19? Develop vaccines, sequence the virus and trace its origin.

Under Bai Chunli, CAS president since 2012, the academy has made some significant gains, catching up with or even overtaking the United States, China’s biggest competitor, in some critical fields of research. These include building the world’s first quantum satellite, largest hypersonic wind tunnel, fastest supercomputer and biggest radio telescope.
The drive has put an enormous amount of pressure on the shoulders of scientists and engineers.
“Bai is a very kind person but he has no mercy when our performance failed to meet the expectation from the top,” said a Shanghai-based researcher who asked not to be named.
“In recent years we were busier than workaholics. I don’t have much to ask from the new chief, just hope he won’t make it worse.”
US-China big chill may freeze out Chinese students from American university research labs
Beijing is not letting up in its ambitions, with plans to turn China into a superpower of research and development. By 2030, many more areas in fundamental research and applied sciences should be on par with or overtaking the West.
In interviews over the years, Hou has said that researchers should have the freedom and resources to study what interests them most, and the government should not meddle in academic affairs.
But the higher he moved up in the administrative ladder, the more often he said that scientists should put national interest ahead of their personal considerations.


“The best inspiration comes from the biggest needs of our country,” he was quoted by People’s Daily as saying in 2016, when he was the deputy minister of science and technology.
Another challenge in Hou’s job will be the tensions between China and the US.
Hou is very familiar with the United States, having spent five years from 1991 studying and working there. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, a visiting scholar at Oregon State University and the leader of numerous Chinese science delegations to the US.
But there may be little he can do to overcome problems between Washington and Beijing.
Because of US sanctions, researchers in some CAS laboratories have not been able to buy essential instruments in recent years. Attending academic conferences in the US has also become a nightmare because of visa restrictions, and US national security concerns have put collaboration with US scientists under the microscope.
Chinese research lab ‘badly hurt’ by man-made coronavirus rumours
Some of the most urgent tasks Hou will confront are much closer to home.
For years, many young scientists within the CAS system have complained that their meagre salaries barely cover housing, education and many other mundane needs, especially in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen where property prices are sky high.
A young scientist in Beijing said CAS dormitories were one solution but they could not live there forever.
“I have a wish list: an affordable place to live, a car, a girlfriend,” the scientist said.
They are problems that the details-oriented science administrator will have to draw on all his experience to solve.


China’s big task for a scientist of ‘small things’

Hou Jianguo will have his hands full as head of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Photo: Weibo

Bai Chunli, President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is pictured during an interview at the Press Center of the 19th National Congress of CPC (Communist Party of China) in Beijing on Oct. 22. 22OCT17 SCMP/Simon Song

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Hou Jianguo has been named the Communist Party secretary of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
As its chief, Hou will face a range of complex international and domestic challenges



Hou Jianguo has been named the Communist Party secretary of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.


China’s big task for a scientist of ‘small things’

Hou Jianguo has been named the Communist Party secretary of the Chinese Academy of Sciences As its chief, Hou will face a range of complex international and domestic challenges

Hou Jianguo has been named the Communist Party secretary of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

As its chief, Hou will face a range of complex international and domestic challenges