Analysis | Chinese liberal think tank’s days were numbered, director says
Although the head of Unirule Institute of Economics criticised a top judge days before it was taken offline, the move was long-planned, his associate says
The sudden removal from the internet of a prominent private think tank lead by liberal economist Mao Yushi was likely long-planned by the authorities, rather than the result of an individual incident, his associate said.
The official website of Unirule Institute of Economics, a 24-year-old think tank, and a handful of its social media accounts were shut down last Friday afternoon by Beijing’s municipal internet censor.
The government accused Unirule’s website of disseminating news without a proper licence, but the think tank said the authority had “the obvious aim of silencing Unirule totally”.
The group is just the latest victim of an intense push by the central authorities to silence the liberal intellectuals, as part of a wider push to cement its rule.
In July, Chinese media administrators sacked Du Daozheng, an influential former cadre known as a reform thinker, from Yanhuang Chunqiu, an outspoken political magazine he founded. For 20 years, Du’s magazine published articles critical of the Communist Party, and he had the support of many party members, including Xi Jinping’s father, Xi Zhongxun.
