Close ally of Xi Jinping named new head of influential Chinese think tank

A close ally of President Xi Jinping has been appointed to lead the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the country’s leading state-backed think tank. Shi Taifeng, 65, was named president of the CASS on Saturday soon after Xinhua reported that he had been replaced as Communist Party boss of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, a post he had held since 2019. He was vice-president of the Central Party School when Xi headed the cadre-training academy between 2007 and 2012. Xi has favoured promoting officials with whom he has closely worked to key posts and to tackle significant problems such as corruption and the initial Covid-19 outbreak. The CASS regularly advises on government policy, and its academics keep close ties with top echelons of the Chinese government. While more regional think tanks have emerged in China, the CASS, supervised by the party, stands out in shaping the ideology behind policy formulation. “Shi’s extensive history serving in the Central Party School, including his time working under Xi as its vice-president, makes him a sensible choice to head the CASS,” said Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. “His anti-corruption campaign against the coal industry during his time in Inner Mongolia also won him personal favour with Xi.” Last year, the central government decided to expand an anti-graft drive targeted at Inner Mongolia’s coal industry to cover all cadres and officials, with investigations to go as far back as two decades ago. The campaign, led by Shi, caused the downfall of more than 60 senior local officials. As party boss of the region, Shi also replaced the use of Mongolian in some school subjects with Mandarin, the country’s official language that is spoken by most Han Chinese. Protesters in the region and neighbouring Mongolia demonstrated against the reform, saying it threatened indigenous culture. Shi later berated local officials for failing “to forge a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation”. He was also at the helm when Inner Mongolia faced multiple Covid-19 outbreaks that the government blamed on imported cases from across its long but porous borders with Russia and Mongolia. In a leadership meeting in Inner Mongolia on Saturday, Shi described his tenure as one that adhered closely with Xi’s political mantra. “I have fought one hard battle after another, made efforts to clear some stubborn ills, effectively resolved some issues with conflicts and effectively pushed through some of the major reforms,” Shi was quoted as saying by Inner Mongolia News, the official paper of the region’s party committee. “Changing the mindset of cadres, changing the mode of economic development, purifying the political environment, improving the business environment, resolving the major ecological problems and correcting ethnicity work that deviated from the guiding ideology – each of these was not done easily.” Shi will be replaced in Inner Mongolia by Sun Shaocheng, 61, head of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, according to Xinhua. Wu of the National University of Singapore said Shi’s appointment had taken him a step closer to being promoted next year to the sub-national level – the second-highest ranking for cadres. “The CASS is the central government’s think tank and remains in an influential position. Its research and policy drafts have long shaped public opinion, helped formulate government policies and conceptualised governance theories,” he said. Shi taught law at the Central Party School for nearly 20 years from 1985 to 2002, according to his official profile. He then moved up to management to become a vice-president of the school until 2010, and in the final three years worked as Xi’s deputy. After the cadre academy, he worked on provincial-level party committees, starting in the eastern province of Jiangsu, one of China’s most prosperous industrial and commercial bases. His seven years in Jiangsu was followed by promotion to party chief of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region in the northwest, where he stayed for over two years. He was then sent to Inner Mongolia to be party boss as part of a reshuffle in 2019. Shi’s appointment to the CASS comes months before the party’s twice-a-decade national congress, at which Xi is expected to secure an unprecedented third term. The future of Xie Fuzhan, who Shi replaces at the CASS, has yet to be announced. Additional reporting by Mimi Lau