|
China Leading Group for Science and Technology
The growth of China's scientific system and the tendencies
toward compartmentalization inherent in the Soviet mode of
scientific and industrial organization, which it emulated, were
matched by the creation of administrative bodies intended to
coordinate the activities of vertically organized administrative
hierarchies. Both the State Science and Technology Commission and
the NDSTIC, which were formed by the amalgamation of earlier
coordinating bodies founded as long ago as the mid-1950s, had this
primary function. Efforts to fill the need for progressively more
authoritative and comprehensive coordination culminated in the
establishment of the State Council's Leading Group for Science and
Technology in January 1983. The leading group, a special-purpose
task force formed by the State Council to address problems that cut
across administrative boundaries, was China's highest-level policymaking organ for science and technology. In 1987 its chairman was
Premier Zhao Ziyang, and its membership included Fang Yi, state
councillor and former head of the State Science and Technology
Commission and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and leading members
of the State Science and Technology Commission, NDSTIC, State
Planning Commission, State Economic Commission, State Education
Commission, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Ministry of Labor and
Personnel. That the leading group was headed by the premier
indicated both the significance China's leaders attached to science
policy and the level of authority necessary to settle disputes and
encourage cooperation.
Data as of July 1987
|
