‘Fear everywhere’: China’s scientists braced as ministry takes over funding body
Independent science foundation set up by Deng Xiaoping will come under control of bureaucrats as part of a broader government reshuffle
Chinese researchers are bracing for what will be the biggest change to how they are funded by the government in more than three decades.
“There’s fear everywhere,” Yang Jinbo, a professor with the physics department at Peking University, said on Tuesday after the announcement.
As he spoke, his phone buzzed constantly with a stream of new messages on WeChat, mostly from other researchers concerned about what the move would mean for them.
Hours earlier, a sweeping plan to shake up the central government structure was put to lawmakers at the National People’s Congress that will see the National Natural Science Foundation – which manages science funding and promotes research – downgraded.
It will no longer come under the cabinet and instead will be managed by the Ministry of Science and Technology according to the reshuffle plan, which is expected to be endorsed by the legislature later this week.
The change is aimed at strengthening the government’s “research-driven development strategy” and “optimising the distribution of funding on science and technology”, the proposal says.
