China’s Latest Crackdown Target Is Liberal Economists

Around 10 a.m. one day last summer, a low-ranking government official visited the offices of China’s most prominent free-market think tank to lodge a complaint. The scholars of the Unirule Institute of Economics were being too loud for the neighbors, the official said, and should consider finding an alternative place of business.

It was an odd allegation to make against a group whose idea of a wild night out might include a vigorous discussion of Hayek’s minor works, but no one at Unirule was surprised. For months, the organization had been harassed at its converted western Beijing apartment by a rotating cast of angry visitors: a landlord claiming it was violating the terms of its lease, tax collectors demanding to inspect financial records, bureaucrats citing violations of unspecified municipal regulations.