The article explores the complex interactions between science and politics in China. It contextualizes Yu Keping’s article “Which innovation we should foster and promote?” (2010) translated in the issue. Yu, a Chinese well-known scholar nationally and worldwide, supports gradual democratization while being very close to power, as former member of interesting research centers – the Central Translation and Compilation Bureau and the Center for Chinese Government Innovations. His scholarly work on local innovations, thus, provides a gateway into the understanding of Chinese political science’s recent history, the academic stance of a political scientist in China and the specificities of Chinese governance. It discusses the role local institutional innovations play in the national Chinese context, as models which may be promoted.