According to a news report in Guangming Daily in September 2011, China has now said goodbye to the era of severe research and development funding shortages. But a new problem is rearing it’s head: research corruption. The article said, citing a report from the Ministry of Science and Technology, that while research and development funding has been increasing at a rate of around 20 percent a year, only about 40 percent of total funding is actually applied to research and development. That means about 60 percent of funding is wasted, embezzlement and misappropriation being the main forms of abuse. In this cartoon, posted by Kunming-based studio Yuan Jiao Man’s Space (圆觉漫时空) to QQ.com, lazy white-coated lab rats (representing research scientists, of course), drink wantonly from a flask labeled “research and development funding.”