Think tanks with Chinese characteristics

Abstract

The year 2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the Chinese government’s announcement of the strategy to build ‘new-type think tanks with Chinese characteristics’. As thousands of new think tanks launched across the country, has the Chinese government attained its strategic goals including advancing the scientific and democratic decision-making and the modernization of the national governance system and capacity? What key questions concerning think tanks remain unsolved? And what prospects on new think tanks could be expected? To answer these questions, this essay reviews five books written by representative Chinese think tank scholars and practitioners. It argues that while China has made progress in terms of quality, quantity, and institution building of new think tanks, as the books under review demonstrate, some major challenges remain. Among them, the most severe is that China has yet to develop a competitive idea market and cultivate an open think tank culture. This essay concludes by arguing that there is a long road ahead for China to shift from a big think tank country to a powerful think tank country.