Policy Background
January 20, 2015: The General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of New-Type Think Tanks with Chinese Characteristics. Building new-type think tanks with Chinese characteristics provides important support for scientific, democratic, and law-based decision-making by the Party and government, is an important component of modernizing the national governance system and governance capacity, and enhances national soft power. In response to a new era and a complex and changing international environment, efforts should be made by 2020 to coordinate and build a well-structured system of new-type think tanks with Chinese characteristics across Party and government departments and research institutes.
March 2, 2016: The journal Think Tank Theory and Practice was launched by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The journal serves the national innovation-driven development strategy, supports macro-level science and technology strategic decision-making, relies on the rich think tank resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, integrates high-end domestic and international think tank resources, features science and technology think tanks, explores think tank construction theory, summarizes practical experience, disseminates research outcomes, and aims to become a first-class domestic academic journal in think tank research with an international vision. It provides a platform for developing think tank theory, policies, methods, mechanisms, evaluation, and talent cultivation conducive to think tank development.
On May 4, 2017, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Central Propaganda Department, the Central Organization Department, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, and the National Bureau of Statistics jointly issued Several Opinions on Promoting the Healthy Development of Social Think Tanks. The Opinions state that developing social think tanks meets the need for balanced development of politics, economy, society, culture, and ecology during China's comprehensive reform. By leveraging the strengths of social think tanks, mechanisms should be explored for decision-making departments to respond to and provide feedback on their advisory opinions, promoting positive interaction between government decision-making and think tank recommendations and encouraging the sharing of development outcomes. Based on their positioning and research fields, mechanisms for recruiting, utilizing, training, assessing, and incentivizing professional research talent and administrative management talent should be established. The development of social think tanks should be regarded as important for advancing scientific decision-making and strengthening consultative democracy among social organizations.
On February 3, 2019, the report 'CAS Institute for Strategic Consulting Ranked First in Professional Influence among Science and Technology Think Tanks in China' was released. It noted that in 2018, 509 think tanks participated in the evaluation. The evaluation used decision-making influence, academic influence, social influence, international influence, and growth capacity as criteria, and established an objective indicator system. It adopted a method combining multiple rounds of subjective evaluation with selected objective indicators, conducted through questionnaires and expert review. Think tanks included in the rankings for comprehensive influence, category influence, system influence, professional influence, and issue influence were recognized as China's Most Influential Think Tanks in 2018. The Institute for Strategic Consulting, Chinese Academy of Sciences, ranked first in professional influence among science and technology think tanks.