Top Think Tank Economsit in China Vanishes After Private WeChat Comments

Here is more from the Wall Street Journal:

A prominent economist at one of China’s top think tanks was placed under investigation, detained and removed from his posts after he allegedly criticized leader Xi Jinping’s management of the world’s second-largest economy in a private chat group, according to people familiar with the matter.

The investigation of Zhu Hengpeng, who for the past decade was deputy director of the Institute of Economics at the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, comes as the Communist Party ramps up efforts to suppress negative commentary about China’s economic health.

It couldn’t be determined which alleged offenses were the focus of the investigation. Zhu has since been removed from his positions at the CASS Institute of Economics, where he was also deputy party secretary. Also, his name has disappeared from the online list of personnel at a think tank affiliated with Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University.

CASS, a ministerial-level think tank directly subordinate to the State Council, as China’s cabinet is known, advises the party and government leadership on policymaking.

 

CASS, established in 1977, is made up of 31 research institutes and 45 research centers, along with 4,200+ staff members.

 

Atlantic Council Receives Blowback Over Musk-Meloni Event

Here is more from Politico:

Internal discontent is brewing at the Atlantic Council over the Washington think tank's decision to honor Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at an upcoming gala in New York and invite controversial tech mogul Elon Musk to introduce her.

The Atlantic Council will give Meloni its Global Citizen Award on Sept. 22 at a gala on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in recognition of "her groundbreaking role as Italy's first female prime minister, her strong support of the European Union and the transatlantic alliance, and her 2024 chairmanship of the Group of Seven."

Meloni's inclusion was grounds alone for some staffers at the prominent Washington policy shop to grouse, owing to her past coziness with Russia and her political party's anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.  But former and current Atlantic Council staffers...[said] anger reached a boiling point when the think tank announced that at Meloni's request, she would be introduced by Musk.

 

Atlantic Council, like many Washington think tanks over the years, has seen its reputation take a hit over various foreign funding and disclosure issues.

Think Tank Quickies (#502)

• Heritage Foundation suggests Biden may try to hold the White House "by force" if he loses the November election; says "zero percent chance of free and fair election."
• Heritage Foundation hosts "Policy Fest" at Republican National Convention.
  
• Defense Priorities: "A restraint-oriented think tank."
• The pro-Israel activist waging legal war against Washington think tanks. 
• Ziklag has donated $600,000 to the Conservative Partnership Institute, which in turn funds Cleta Mitchell's election integrity work.
• Former Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos launches think tank ahead of mayoral bid.
• Much of the effort to turn out for the January 6th protest took place at the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI).
• A New Yorker piece entitled "Inside the Trump Plan for 2025," with lots of discussion about think tanks.
• How think tanks drive polarization and policy.
  
• The think tank shaping Britain's new government.
  

Think Tank Chief to be Extradicted on China Agent Charges

Here is more from Reuters:

The leader of a U.S. think tank who was indicted last year on charges of acting as an unregistered agent of China has been arrested and will be extradited in the coming weeks or months, prosecutors said on Monday.

In July 2023, federal prosecutors in Manhattan accused Gal Luft of paying a former high-ranking U.S. government official on behalf of principals based in China in 2016, as well as seeking to broker the sale of weapons and Iranian oil.

Luft, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, was arrested in Cyprus last February but fled while released on bail, prosecutors said in a court filing. He has since been re-arrested, prosecutors said, without specifying when or where.

Luft, the co-director of the Washington-based Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, said in posts on X last year that he had never been an arms dealer and that the charges were "politically motivated."

The Institute for the Analysis of Global Security describes itself as a think tank focused on energy, security and economic trends. The group last year said it was convinced of Luft's innocence.

 

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch post about Gal Luft.