There are some who say there were more deserving members on that team who didn't get recognition. In other words, it was a team effort and there were others whose work figured more into the discovery but who didn't get recognized.
Who knows, its possible the objectors are being political, or biased, but some people contest her getting all the recognition when there was a team with other prominent researchers, and that's unfortunate.
Even if that's the case, don't blame Tu Youyou for getting the credit. In every interview I've seen with her over the last few years she insists on this being a team effort, and almost appears to prefer staying unknown and unrecognised (one interview even suggests it may be an result from the culture instilled in her during the Mao years, where being a known intellectual wasn't exactly a benefit).
There are some who say there were more deserving members on that team who didn't get recognition.
This seems to be the standard call for every science prize these days. I wonder if the Nobel committee will ever change their rules so they can start giving prizes to teams rather than 2-3 individuals.
That defeats the purpose of the prize, which is to inspire individuals (among other things). Fairness per se isn't the point.
Why not give the prize to a whole university, since the researchers couldn't do it without the admin staff and the students? Or to the whole country of taxpayers?
Who knows, its possible the objectors are being political, or biased, but some people contest her getting all the recognition when there was a team with other prominent researchers, and that's unfortunate.