By Shannon Tiezzi
A new policy document outlines China’s strategy for creating “think tanks with Chinese characteristics.”
China is seeking to boost its soft power by developing “a new type of think tank with Chinese characteristics,” Xinhua reported on Tuesday, citing new guidelines from the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee and the State Council (China Copyright and Media has an English translation of the entire Party document). The main goal is to have “several think tanks wielding major global influence” by 2020.
How do China’s think tanks rank so far? The Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) at the University of Pennsylvania provides an annual ranking of over 6,500 think tanks worldwide. According to their 2013 report (PDF), the U.S. accounted for three of the top five think tanks worldwide (with the other two being located in the U.K. and Sweden) and six of the top ten. China, meanwhile, has its top-ranked think tank, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, ranked 20th in the world.
Overall, China has only three think tanks in the top 50 worldwide (in addition to CASS, the Chinese Institute of International Studies comes in at 36 and the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations ranks 44th). Again, that’s the same number the U.S. has in the top five. Even when the category is restricted to “think tanks in China, India, Japan, and the Republic of Korea,” China’s CIIS and CASS lose out to the Korea Development Institute and the Japan Institute of International Affairs.
Read the full story at The Diplomat