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China National Organization and Administration
The research institutes belonged to larger systems or
hierarchies, defined by the administrative bodies that directed and
funded their subordinate institutes. Research institutes were
grouped into five major subsystems, known in China as the "five
main forces"
(see
fig. 18). The five subsystems were
administratively distinct and had little contact or communication
among them.
Chinese Academy of Sciences
In the late 1980s, the Chinese Academy of Sciences remained the
most prestigious research agency in the natural sciences. It
administered about 120 research institutes in various parts of
China, with major concentrations in Beijing and Shanghai. In 1986
the academy employed 80,000 persons, over 40,000 of whom were
scientific personnel. It also operated the elite Chinese University
of Science and Technology, located in Hefei, Anhui Province, as
well as its own printing plant and scientific instrument factory.
Its institutes concentrated on basic research in many fields and
did research (such as that on superconductor materials) that met
international standards. The Chinese Academy of Sciences institutes
employed China's best-qualified civilian scientists and had better
laboratories, equipment, and libraries than institutes in the other
four research systems. The academy's concentration on basic
research was intended to be complemented by the work of the more
numerous institutes affiliated with industrial ministries or local
governments, which focused on applied research.
Although nominally subordinate to the State Science and
Technology Commission, the Chinese Academy of Sciences in practice
reported directly to the State Council
(see The State Council
, ch.
10). Before 1956 the academy was directly responsible for overall
science planning, and in 1987 it retained a fairly high degree of
institutional autonomy and influence on national science policy.
The academy provided expert advice, when asked, to the State
Council and its ministries, commissions, and agencies. Its
specialized research institutes also did work for the military
research and development program. Additionally, it had
responsibility for multidisciplinary research, monitoring the level
of technology in Chinese industries and suggesting areas where
foreign technology should be purchased. During the 1980s the
academy repeatedly was asked to pay more attention to the needs of
production and the application of knowledge.
The membership of the Chinese Academy of Sciences included the
nation's most senior and best-known scientists, some of whom had
long-standing personal ties with senior political leaders. Such
ties and the prestige of the academy helped it win favorable
treatment in the state budgetary process and operate with
relatively little outside interference. Its relatively privileged
position generated resentment among those working in less wellfunded institutes under the industrial ministries, whose workers--
as well as some planners in the state administration--reportedly
considered the academy both overfunded and overstaffed with
theoreticians who contributed little to the national economy.
Data as of July 1987
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