Reorganization of China’s Science and Technology System

Barry Naughton, Tai Ming Cheung, Siwen Xiao, Yaosheng Xu and Yujing Yang

Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, Working Paper Series from Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, University of California

Abstract: China continues to dramatically increase the priority it gives to science and technology (S&T). This paper reviews China’s reorganization of its S&T system, which is part of a broader Party and government restructuring plan. The most important elements of the bureaucratic reform were the establishment of a Central Science and Technology Commission (CSTC) and the reorganization of the existing Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). These reorganizations have been carefully thought out and in gestation for the past several years. If the subordination of research and innovation to immediate policy goals is taken as a given, most of the reorganization measures are reasonable attempts to moderate the costs that would be expected with a campaign-style approach to S&T. At the same time, the measures are no panacea. Bureaucratic conflicts will persist, though shifted to different arenas, and the biggest challenges will persist: the subordination of research to security imperatives; divorce from international collaborative research; and narrower use of market incentives will all be very costly to China’s science efforts and aspirations.

Keywords: Social and Behavioral Sciences; industrial policy; China; science; technology; and innovation; national security (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-08-22
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-ino and nep-mac
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