RE:RE:RE:RE:USA Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) 2022 Re: Biotech and China
A McKinsey-led think-tank advised China to deepen co-operation between business and the military and push foreign companies out of sensitive industries as part of a project for the central government in 2015.
The recommendations in a book by the Urban China Initiative, commissioned by the Chinese government’s central planning agency, were among dozens of policies it proposed to boost the country’s technological prowess, according to a review of the work, which has not previously been reported in western media.
The UCI’s book — with a foreword by one of McKinsey’s most senior partners in China and drawing on work by McKinsey’s in-house research arm — formed part of the Chinese government’s research for its 13th Five-Year Plan covering 2016-20. The Five-Year Plan included the “Made in China 2025” policy that increased tensions between Beijing and Washington.
UCI has been described by several people involved as a McKinsey initiative. One said it was initiated and run by McKinsey, rather than Columbia or Tsinghua. UCI’s director of research Gengtian Zhang, described the organisation as “McKinsey (Shanghai) Consulting’s Urban China Initiative” in a biography in the annual report of a company where he is a director. Other former UCI staff members list themselves as having worked for McKinsey on their LinkedIn profiles. The initiative shared an address with the McKinsey office in Beijing.
Ultimately, the Five-Year Plan adopted a number of policies to improve China’s technological prowess, including a “Made in China 2025” strategy with global market share targets for strategic industries from robotics to aerospace and new energy vehicles. Then US president Donald Trump launched a trade war against Beijing in response, and tensions between the two countries have remained elevated ever since.
https://www.ft.com/content/15a3e8d9-6c57-422a-8eb8-35a3c24a50e3