Geplante Wissenschaft. Bemerkungen zu Ideal und Wirklichkeit in der Chinesischen Wissenschaftspolitik

Abstract

This study is based primarily on information obtained by the author in interviews with Chinese scientists and science administrators, but also on some material recently published in specialised Chinese joumals on research and technology management and on the history, philosophy and sociology of science. In the first section it shows that inside China conflicting views of the relationship between science, politics and the economy exist. Politicians argue for a subordination of all research to the aims of central economic planning. Scientists, on the other hand, plead for greater autonomy of research institutes and of individual scientists and complain about excessive interference with their work. The paper then goes on to examine the actual performance and role of the leading organ in Chinese science and technology policy, the "State Science and Technology Commission". The organisational structure of scientific research and the decision-making processes on the provincial level are then analysed. Finally, a few instances of actual research are presented, concentrating on the development and problems of biological research in the southern province of Yunnan. One of the conclusions drawn from the material is that the organisation of scientific research in China today is structured in a way which, instead of facilitating central control and direction of research, tends to prevent it. This is due primarily to two facts: firstly, the state organs responsible for coordination and planning do not dispose of the necessary basic data and information, and secondly, they are powerless to impose their strategic aims on other institutions or to effectively control their work. State and Party organs then tend to make up for this structural deficiency by influencing research through other, more informal, channels. This kind of external influence, however, seems to be dictated less by considerations of technological and economic rationality, but rather by personal, institutional, sectoral, regional or other group interests.