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No more gloomy thoughts about the economy

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The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) is no ordinary collection of policy wonks. In China’s political hierarchy it has the status of a government ministry. It has thousands of staff, some of whom give briefings to the ruling Politburo. Among “think-tanks with Chinese characteristics” that China’s leader, Xi Jinping, says he wants to foster, it stands at the apex. But proximity to power offers no protection to its researchers. Mr Xi’s henchmen are turning up the heat on those who dare to think independently.

A recent sign of this has been the unexplained purge of a prominent health economist at CASS, Zhu Hengpeng. Until earlier this year, he had been serving as deputy director of its Institute of Economics and director of its Public Policy Research Centre. Now pages mentioning his name can no longer be accessed on CASS’s websites. The Wall Street Journal reports that he was detained in spring after posting comments to a private group on WeChat, a social-media platform, about China’s flagging economy. They included veiled criticism of Mr Xi, the newspaper says.

There has been a wider shake-up, too, at the Institute of Economics. In August CASS announced a sweeping change of the institute’s leadership (without referring to Mr Zhu), with the appointment of a new director, deputy director and Communist Party chief. None of these developments have been explained by CASS or any other authority. But they coincide with efforts by officials to press academics and journalists not to express gloom about the country’s economic prospects. “Publicly criticising major party policies online is a serious breach of political discipline,” a CASS official told staff at the institute in June.

At CASS Mr Xi’s discipline-enforcers have been hard at work in every area of research. Since 2018 they, along with CASS’s own party snoops, have been conducting annual inspections, stationing themselves in a selected handful of its dozens of institutes for weeks on end to make sure staff are toeing the line. This year the Institute of Economics is among their targets. Employees at CASS have until the end of October to submit any observations on colleagues’ wayward behaviour to the inspection teams. Among types to look out for are “two-faced people” (those who express support for the party but privately criticise it) and “road-blocking tigers” who frustrate the party’s wishes.

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Gao Xiang, who took over as the academy’s president and party chief in 2022, has been leading the charge. CASS’s websites are filled with his fulminations. Mr Gao calls for “ironclad loyalty” to Mr Xi and the party. He says the academy must “closely monitor…prominent issues that hinder our institution’s ability to serve” them. He has introduced “ten strictly forbiddens”, including a ban on unauthorised interviews with foreign journalists. Number one on the list is publishing or even making use of any material that “violates party discipline”. Staff should have “fear in their hearts, caution in their speech and restraint in their actions”, he says. This is a phrase often used by Mr Xi. It refers to the impact that rules relating to party discipline should have on party members.

As Mr Gao doubtless bears in mind, there was a time when CASS was very different. So many of its researchers took part in the pro-democracy demonstrations of 1989 that the government later called it a “major disaster area”. Despite that year’s clampdown, including purges of its staff, some reform-minded scholars kept their jobs. Some readily gave interviews to foreign journalists.

But Mr Xi’s imprint is now all over CASS’s research. Last year, at Mr Gao’s request, the Institute of Economics set up a Xi Jinping Economic Thought Research Office. CASS says the new branch “strives to produce high-quality research outcomes based on elevated theory, academic depth and scholarly substance”. And, it might add, with the help of an intellectually shackled staff. ■

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Xi JinpingEconomyChina.css-2x8c4j{margin:0.875rem 0;}.css-2x8c4j .e12sz0jx0+*{margin-top:0.875rem;}.el1rg701+.css-2x8c4j{margin-top:0;}.css-1aogxph{color:var(–mb-colour-greyscale-london-20);font-family:var(–mb-typeface-sans);font-size:var(–mb-typestyle-label-2-size);font-variant:var(–mb-typestyle-label-2-figures);line-height:var(–mb-typestyle-label-2-leading);}.css-1aogxph s,.css-1aogxph del{-webkit-text-decoration:line-through;text-decoration:line-through;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;}.css-1aogxph b{font-weight:var(–mb-font-weight-semibold);}.css-1aogxph i{font-style:italic;}.css-1aogxph sup{font-feature-settings:’sups’ 1;}.css-1aogxph sub{font-feature-settings:’subs’ 1;}.css-1aogxph u{text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;}.css-1aogxph a{color:var(–mb-colour-greyscale-london-20);-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-underline-offset:0.1875rem;}.css-1aogxph a:hover,.css-1aogxph a:focus,.css-1aogxph a:active{text-decoration-thickness:var(–mb-spacing-3xs);}.css-1aogxph a:hover{color:var(–mb-colour-base-chicago-30);}.css-1aogxph a:hover span{text-decoration-color:var(–mb-colour-base-chicago-30);}.css-1aogxph a:focus{background-color:var(–mb-colour-base-chicago-90);color:var(–mb-colour-greyscale-london-5);text-decoration-color:var(–mb-colour-greyscale-london-5);outline:none;}.css-1aogxph a:active{background-color:var(–mb-colour-base-chicago-90);color:var(–mb-colour-base-chicago-30);text-decoration-color:var(–mb-colour-base-chicago-30);}

This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Brains-trust blues”

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China

September 28th 2024

• →A new class struggle is brewing in China
• →Another attack on a Japanese local points to a big problem in China
• →Xi Jinping wants to stifle thinking at a top Chinese think-tank

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From the September 28th 2024 edition

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Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

⇒Explore the edition.css-v7aorn{margin-top:0.875rem;}.css-v7aorn +.eq1asik0{margin-top:3rem;padding-bottom:0;}.el1rg701+.css-v7aorn{margin-top:0;}.css-9ejc71{position:relative;border-bottom:0;border-top:0.0625rem solid var(–mb-colour-greyscale-london-85);color:var(–mb-colour-greyscale-london-35);}.css-9ejc71 .ebxshaw0{margin-top:0;}.css-9ejc71 >.e5z0ibw0>*{padding:var(–mb-spacing-md) 0;}.css-9ejc71 >.e5z0ibw0>*:nth-of-type(2){border-top:0.0625rem solid var(–mb-colour-greyscale-london-85);}@media (min-width: 37.5rem){.css-9ejc71 >.e5z0ibw0>*:nth-of-type(2){border-top:0;}}.css-9ejc71 >.e5z0ibw0 .e5z0ibw0{gap:var(–mb-spacing-sm);}.css-yb4x8x{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:column;-ms-flex-direction:column;flex-direction:column;-webkit-align-items:stretch;-webkit-box-align:stretch;-ms-flex-align:stretch;align-items:stretch;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:flex-start;justify-content:flex-start;}@media (min-width: 37.5rem){.css-yb4x8x{-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;}}@media (min-width: 37.5rem){.css-yb4x8x{-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;}}@media (min-width: 37.5rem){.css-yb4x8x{-webkit-box-pack:end;-ms-flex-pack:end;-webkit-justify-content:flex-end;justify-content:flex-end;}}.css-1j1j36d{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-flex-wrap:wrap;-webkit-flex-wrap:wrap;-ms-flex-wrap:wrap;flex-wrap:wrap;row-gap:0.6rem;-webkit-column-gap:var(–mb-spacing-sm);column-gap:var(–mb-spacing-sm);}ShareReuse this content.css-169lzn0{position:relative;-webkit-align-self:auto;-ms-flex-item-align:auto;align-self:auto;display:none;}@media (min-width: 80rem){.css-169lzn0{grid-column-start:9;}}@media (min-width: 89rem){.css-169lzn0{grid-column-start:13;}}@media (min-width: 80rem){.css-169lzn0{grid-column-end:13;}}@media (min-width: 89rem){.css-169lzn0{grid-column-end:17;}}@media (min-width: 80rem){.css-169lzn0{grid-row-start:1;}}@media (min-width: 80rem){.css-169lzn0{grid-row-end:span 4;}}@media (min-width: 80rem){.css-169lzn0{display:block;}}.css-169lzn0:last-child::after{height:0;}.css-1y1zooy{display:inline;}.css-1y1zooy >*+*{margin-top:2rem;}.css-1y1zooy >*:only-child{margin-top:1.25rem;}.css-1y1zooy >*:last-child{position:-webkit-sticky;position:sticky;top:1.5rem;}.css-mqgbir{margin-top:6rem;}.css-mqgbir .ds-section-headline{margin-bottom:1rem;}

More from China

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Chinese authorities try to stop parents gaming the exam system (again)

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They will go to great lengths to try

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China’s alarming sex imbalance

By 2027 one in six young Chinese men won’t be able to find a partner

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Behind DeepSeek lies a dazzling Chinese university

It models itself on Stanford, and is in the tech hotspot of Hangzhou

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Panama symbolises the Sino-American struggle for influence

The superpowers use soft and hard power

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Tensions with the West are fuelling China’s anxiety about food supplies

Grain pains are growing

Hail China’s new “ice-and-snow economy”

The country is betting on winter sports and tourism to boost growth in its rustbelt

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Источник: www.economist.com