Setting course of reform

BEIJING - Flying back and forth between Beijing and China's southern island Hainan over the past 20 years, Chi Fulin gradually mapped out a path for the reform of the world's second-largest economy.

Chi, 60, the head of the Hainan-based China Institute for Reform and Development, said his team is "fortune's favorite" compared with other think tanks. It has managed to maintain financial independence and been able to draw out blueprints for the country's reform.

"Think tanks, especially the independent ones, generate opinions from grassroots society, and they are therefore an irreplaceable substitute for government-funded experts," he said.