China’s think tanks need to do more. Is stronger research and autonomy the answer?

2,000 intellectual groups now advise Beijing, but experts say they are producing fewer ‘constructive comments’ to influence decision makers

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Published: 6:00am, 15 Jan 2025

In 2013, during a core decision-making meeting, Chinese President Xi Jinping used the term “think tank” for the first time as he laid out a case in which such intellectual groups would help advance a sound system of governance and policy consultation for Beijing.

Two years later, Beijing acted on that vision by publishing its first comprehensive document to promote the idea of “think tanks with Chinese characteristics”. Apart from helping with official decision-making, the document highlighted what would be another key feature of these domestic thought groups – instruments of soft power to promote China’s “international influence and discourse”.

The nationwide efforts seem to have paid off, according to analysts. In 2022, the China Think Tank Directory listed nearly 2,000 active organisations in the country, ranking China second in the world, after the United States. In the latest Global Go To Think Tank Report, China accounted for nearly 17 per cent of the of 11,175 internationally identified organisations in 2021.

But as Beijing seeks urgent economic reforms against the backdrop of a growing geopolitical rivalry between the two countries, several prominent Chinese scholars have said China’s think tanks need to do more.

Despite the rapid expansion and increasing global influence of China’s thought groups, the scholars have cautioned that they still fall short in terms of professionalism and academic achievements – deficiencies that could curb their influence in both domestic and international arenas.

Some experts have also urged the bodies to defend their independence while calling for more privately funded think tanks to diversify in public sectors, despite China’s shrinking space for discourse.

Zheng Yongnian, a scholar at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, who is also a Beijing policy adviser, told a panel last month that despite significant improvement over the past decade, China’s think tanks still lacked “originality” and had produced fewer “constructive comments” in recent years.