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Dear Madam Zhu: 

I have much pleasure in enclosing our S&T Review Mission report, A Decade of Reform: Science and Technology Policy in China. Our observations and impressions are based on the written material translated into English by SSTC staff and mostly derived from the 1995 "White Paper on Science and Technology Policy," together with the 3-week visit we made in November 1995. During that visit we met with a wide range of science and technology (S&T) policymakers, those concerned with policy implementation, and those effected by S&T reform, in the provinces of Shaanxi, Liaoning, and Guangdong and in the cities of Beijing and Shanghai. These personal observations and impressions have been supplemented by some additional impressions gained by reading recent secondary reviews. 

In reaching our conclusions we followed the process adopted by many similar reviews carried out in the member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. We have relied almost exclusively on what has been written by Chinese authors and what we were told by Chinese individuals. We have not made our own detailed evaluations of institutions or programs. Our report is a mirror reflecting back what we read or were told. The filters through which information passed on its way to the mirror, however, were our own experiences and knowledge of our own societies. This influenced the questions we asked and our interpretation of the replies. We hope that our mirror is slightly concave so that our views are focused! 

We have included a brief description of Chinese S&T institutions and also of the history of the reforms. We felt it was important that we state what our understanding is of these issues. If we are wrong in that understanding, our impressions may be distorted. We have also focused our report on the impact of the reforms with respect to the five themes you had asked us to pay particular attention to: basic research; the high-technology sector; traditional state-owned enterprises; agricultural research and rural development; and environmental and social development. 

As you know, it was never the intention of the S&T Review Mission to make formal recommendations to the SSTC. Our task was to raise issues and ask questions. We hope our report makes a modest contribution to the way in which you and your colleagues consider the evolution of the S&T policy reforms. 

Finally, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to the many people throughout China who gave their time so generously to answer our many questions. 

Yours sincerely, 

Geoffrey Oldham 
Head 
IDRC / SSTC Science and Technology Review Mission to China 

Document(s) 2 of 17