OVERVIEW

“Unirule?(or “Tianze?in Chinese) is a name with its meaning originally stemming from the words in Shi Jing, an ancient Chinese scripture, which says: “as the universe is created by the God, there have to be rules for it? Thus, “Unirule?stands for Universal rules that in reality govern all fields, encompassing economic and political as well as social and cultural institutions.

Background

Unirule Institute of Economics was jointly founded in July 1993 by five economists, Dr. Hong SHENG, Prof. Yushi MAO, Prof. Shuguang ZHANG, Dr. Gang FAN and Dr. Shouning TANG, together with Beijing Universal Culture Co. that has been devoting itself to cultural and economic prosperity. The institute, currently directed by Prof. Hong SHENG, with Prof. Yushi Mao as Chairman of Board, Prof. Shuguang ZHANG as Chairman of Academic Committee, is by nature a private non-profit research institution established for economic research and policy consultation.

In late 1999, the institute underwent its first organizational restructuring after 6 years of growth, which saw an operational separation of its two divisions. The consulting part has since renamed as Unirule Consulting Firm (UCF) being fully commercialized from then on, while its academic division still remains as Unirule Institute of Economics (Unirule) - a private non-profit research institution. The two organizations are now keeping an arm's length market relationship, that is separating all operations and financial relationship and being under the direction of respective board of directors.

Finance

Unirule has never obtained financial assistance from any government. The revenue of the institute mainly comes from social donations and provisional grants on a project basis from institutions at home and abroad. Such projects include researches entrusted, training programs and other services provided. What is significant is its transparent accounting system, that is, its balance sheet, like all of its activities, remains open to the public scrutiny.

Social contacts

Unirule has, since the outset of its establishment, gathered the country’s top economists, jurists and sociologists, who come from various universities (e.g. Peking, Tsinghua, Renmin, Fudan, etc.), institutes and government departments (e.g. Development and Research Centre for State Council, State Development and Planning Commission, State Economic & Trade Commission, People’s Bank of China, State Bureau of Administration for Foreign Exchanges, China Securities Supervisory Commission, Customs Office, State Information Centre, etc.). Not only does Unirule frequently exchange views with these scholars, but also keep close contacts with their organizations.

Unirule also has extensive connections with the media, such a Xinhua News Agency, China Central Television, Central People’s Broadcasting Station, Economic Daily, China Daily, People’s Daily, Xinhua News Agency, China Securities, and also Time, The Economist, Reuter, Financial Times, and others. During the past few years, Unirule has established close cooperative relationships with them.

In addition, Unirule in recent years has built up various types of cooperative relationships with many international private institutions, such as Center for International Private Enterprises (CIPE), the Ford Foundation, Alton Jones Foundation, US-China Chamber of Commerce, International Institute of Economics (IIE), and so on, with international public institutions, such as World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank and African Development Bank, and also with many foreign embassies in Beijing, such as American, Australian, Canadian, German, Indian, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Russian, and Singapore.