Catherine Keyser, Professionalizing Research in Post-Mao China – The System Reform Institute and Policy Making

Abstract

This book provides an illuminating insight into the rise and demise of a Chinese think tank that played an important role during that part of the reform period that came to end in June 1989. The author gives us a detailed case study of the Chinese Economic System Reform Research Institute (SRI), which was formally established in early 1985 and which by 1989 had become an important advocate for continuing reform at a time when social discontent was growing. The author portrays how a group of young researchers came to play a key role in providing an intellectual basis for the reform of Chinese society in the early post-Mao period. She provides deep insights into the background of these people and how they were able to break away from a dogmatic and doctrinaire formulation of economic policies.