Hold on to your hats: it looks like China's sci-tech innovation system is in for a major reorganization next week. A thread. 1/x
Recap: China's government usually gets restructured once every 5 yrs. That means agencies get moved around and merged, new bodies get created, etc. Last time this happened was 2018, and it was a big deal. 2/x thediplomat.com
Another restructure is set to happen next week, so the question everyone's asking is: is this going to be a small re-org, or a big one? A small one would indicate that Xi Jinping is pretty pleased with how the state is working. A big one would mean he wants some major change. 3/x
The big news from yesterday: The group of officials who decide on that restructure have finished meeting (in private), and in a follow-up speech, Xi Jinping gave us a sneak peek into what's going to happen when the reorg is announced next week. 4/x gov.cn
Xi said: “This instance of Party and state institutional reforms…is relatively extensive.” In particular: Xi signaled that major changes are in store for the financial regulation and policymaking apparatus, and the system for promoting science and technology. 5/x
What reforms to the sci-tech system include aren't clear at this point... but we know what Beijing thinks its problems are, so we can assume that the reorg will be targeted at fixing those perceived problems. 6/x
According to policymakers, some of the biggest problems with China's existing sci-tech innovation system include:
1) There's nowhere near enough funding for basic research
2) State funding for innovation often gets misdirected, poorly utilized, or straight-up stolen
7/x
1) There's nowhere near enough funding for basic research
2) State funding for innovation often gets misdirected, poorly utilized, or straight-up stolen
7/x
3) New innovations don't have a clear path to get commercialized
4) The system for training highly-skilled talent is pretty garbage (only 26% of Chinese workers qualify as highly-skilled, as compared to 70-80% for Japan and Germany).
... just to name a few.
8/x
4) The system for training highly-skilled talent is pretty garbage (only 26% of Chinese workers qualify as highly-skilled, as compared to 70-80% for Japan and Germany).
... just to name a few.
8/x
Institutional reforms designed to solve these problems might be stuff like (I'm guessing here): New bodies or oversight for the coordination and management of the issuance of state innovation funding, more Party control over national strategic research directions, etc. 9/x
Here's another interesting thing to watch: Recently, a vice-president of the China Academy of Sciences (CAS) co-authored an op-ed on what policymakers should do to help China develop its domestic semiconductor industry in the face of US sanctions. 10/x mp.weixin.qq.com
One of his suggestions was to revive a Leading Small Group (basically a cross-agency decision-making committee) on Semiconductors that kind of dropped off the map after its founding in 2014. So, that - or something similar - might happen as well. 11/x
Whatever happens, it's likely that the agencies directly responsible for sci-tech and talent development - the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Education - will be impacted by the changes. Who else will be impacted? Stay tuned. 12/x
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