China’s political and scientific elite head to Beidaihe for summer retreat season

China’s political and scientific elite head to Beidaihe for summer retreat season Cai Qi meets frontier researchers, urging them to play their part in Communist Party governance The report did not name those invited but did say they included specialists working at the frontiers of basic research, strategic and cutting-edge technologies and core technologies in key fields, as well as academics in philosophy and the social sciences. Cai, who ranks fifth in the ruling Communist Party’s hierarchy, is a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and director of the party’s General Office. The Xinhua report said that at the meeting he stressed the strategic importance of “talent” in party governance. This year is the start of China’s 15th five-year plan and Cai called on the researchers to advance the scientific spirit, strive for breakthroughs in their fields, and make greater contributions to “securing decisive progress in basically realising socialist modernisation”.