Officials in China are stifling debate about reform

IT HARDLY seemed a threatening scene when, on a Friday afternoon in February, dozens of finance wonks gathered in Beijing for a three-hour symposium on China's exchange-rate mechanism. With a slide show featuring graphs and formulas, the main speaker talked about the arcana of the yuan's adoption last year as one of the IMF's reserve currencies (a development that Chinese reformists hope will encourage the government to let the yuan float freely). Other participants sipped their green tea, jotted down notes and chipped in with their views. The host, the Unirule Institute of Economics, often holds such events. Typically, it posts summaries of speakers' views online. Not this time, however. The website is no more.It was shut down by the city government in late January, as was another site run by Unirule, as well as all of the institute's social-media accounts and those of its leading researchers. Their closure was the latest blow to the country's moderate liberals, who for many years have continued to enjoy at least some freedom to debate reforms, even while the authorities have been busy rounding up more radical critics of the...Continue reading
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