The impressive building that houses the headquarters of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), a government-backed think tank, is located a few blocks from the iconic Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
With 38 institutions under its purview and more than 4000 researchers, CASS’s research ranges from literature and philosophy to Marxism and international relations.[1] The think tank has close ties with the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and many of its office-bearers have occupied important positions in the central and provincial governments.
Although it was established decades ago, in 1977, it is now that CASS is at the forefront of China’s recent efforts to establish a “think tank culture” and create a research base for policy analysis. Media reports have noted President Xi Jinping’s plans to set up a 100 national-level think tanks.
In a context where the CCP controls most of the avenues for formulating policy, leaving little space for independent policy-related advice, Xi is envisioning think tanks that will carve out a space for themselves by providing policy analysis and recommendations.
China’s strategy is evident in the guidelines issued by the CCP and the State Council in January 2015, which emphasise strengthening new types of “think tanks with Chinese characteristics” and establishing a policymaking consultancy system.The document details the significance of think tanks, their guiding ideology, basic principles, and general objectives.
These efforts also have a global dimension. With China on the centre-stage of international politics, the country is trying to use soft power to project its global influence. Think tanks like CASS, along with multiple similar institutions in Beijing, Shanghai, and other Chinese cities, can eventually play a major role in creating a distinct Chinese discourse on international relations. In doing so, Xi hopes they will also provide an ideational underpinning to China’s status as a great power—just as public think tanks in the U.S did to sustain American hegemony after World War II.
And just as in the U.S., China too has implemented a “revolving door” policy—retired as well as serving government officials are being posted at think tanks and university research centres. Ironically, in many cases this has resulted in a synchronisation of the think tanks’ perspective and governmental policy, rather than the nurturing of an independent viewpoint.
In a political system where access to information is filtered and restricted, it will be an uphill task for China’s think tanks to critically reflect on government policy. On a recent visit by Gateway House researchers to CASS’s offices, to the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) in Beijing, and the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS) in Shanghai, the absence of a robust critique of the government’s policies was remarkably evident.
At the same time, the efforts of the Chinese government in supporting these think tanks were also clear. The government has allocated substantial funds to help these institutions set up the requisite infrastructure. But along with independent critiques of government policy utilising resources optimally is another big challenge, because some think tanks are seen in China as operating like government departments characterised by bureaucratic inefficiencies.
Language too is a challenge in disseminating the work of Chinese research scholars to a larger global audience. But the CICIR’s bi-monthly English-language journal, Contemporary International Relations, has managed to provide a respectable platform for a distinct Chinese narrative on international relations.
The Chinese government is also exhorting the research institutes to engage more with the outside world and with foreign think tanks. The SIIS has been an active proponent of such exchanges or what it calls “academic and public diplomacy” in promoting its research agenda worldwide.[2] And CASS has managed to make a global impact: it is ranked 27 among the top think tanks worldwide by the University of Pennsylvania’s Think Tanks & Civil Societies Program.
For now however, the concept of a think tank seems to still be evolving in China. So, for instance, some industrial research institutes located outside Beijing and Shanghai are interested in morphing into think tanks in order to align with the government’s new policy, but with little clarity about their own research agenda.
With time though, Xi’s efforts will perhaps create a truly vibrant think tank culture in China.
References
[1] Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pamphlet, p. 4
[2] Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, 2014 Annual Report, p. 13
Sameer Patil is Associate Fellow, National Security, Ethnic Conflict and Terrorism, at Gateway House.
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