One of China’s few independent economic think tanks has been forced to cease operations in the latest sign of Beijing’s growing intolerance of dissent as economic growth slows amid an ongoing trade war with the US.
On Monday evening local time the Beijing-based Unirule Institute of Economics announced that “in the current institutional environment in China, unless normal protection by the Constitution and laws is confirmed, Unirule . . . will cease public activities under its name temporarily”, after the business license of its affiliate company was revoked.
Sheng Hong, the executive director of Unirule who earlier this month was prevented from leaving China to participate in a forum at Harvard University on national security grounds, said in a statement dated November 9 and published on Monday evening that the license of the company, Beijing Unirule Consulting Co, had been revoked “for the wrong purpose, based on the wrong evidence, and executed at the wrong time and place”.