To ensure a supply of diverse opinions, even as public debates face strict controls, Mr Xi is encouraging a boom in “think-tanks with Chinese characteristics”
the quality of the advice he was receiving, the first Song emperor of China had an idea. The tenth-century ruler, it is said, promised that officials would not be executed for disagreeing with him. President Xi Jinping appears to be testing a less flamboyant remedy to a similar problem. .
State-funded think-tanks, many of them serving individual ministries or Communist Party bodies, have long existed in China. But recent years have seen a flourishing of think-tanks that eschew direct state sponsorship. Some are privately funded foundations, or attached to universities. Others register as private consulting firms, bringing both flexibility and vulnerability.The boom throws up puzzles. In the West, measuring clout is easy.
Wang Huiyao leads the Centre for China and Globalisation, a think-tank that promotes free trade and greater opening to the world. Mr Wang is proud that his “independent” think-tank is funded by Chinese entrepreneurs and companies, not the state. But he is an outsider withaccess, serving as an appointed adviser to the State Council, or cabinet, and as vice-chairman of a group that seeks to influence foreign-educated Chinese, the Western Returned Scholars Association.
The Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, which is backed by private donors but attached to Renmin University, an elite academy in Beijing, is headed by Wang Wen, a rising star on what might be dubbed the Make China Great Again right. He downplays his rumoured access to powerful folk, insisting that Chinese leaders consult widely, gathering opinions “like bees collect nectar”.
Wise emperors understood this. Diverse opinions may provoke autocratic rulers. What really hurts is the advice they never hear."Let policy wonks proliferate"
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