Reform And Opening Up And Think Tanks In Contemporary China

This book analyzes how Chinese think tanks have become essential actors in today’s Chinese foreign policy and diplomatic practices. By providing an in-depth analysis of their roles, functions and transformation in the last decade, this study explains how they differ from their Western counterparts and how they have developed during Hu Jintao’s and Xi Jinping’s mandates. Think tanks are often thought to only be able to gain access to political processes within democratic contexts. This book suggests that even in the more ambiguous Chinese political environment, think tanks remain essential actors where ideas, discourses and beliefs about foreign policy and diplomacy are generated, framed and discussed vis-à-vis China’s ascent role in international affairs and global governance.

This book looks back to 40 years ago for the whole history of China’s reform and opening-up and focuses on the role change of China in the relationship with outside world. In the first half part, the author explores China’s economic reform and opening-up policy from theoretical analysis and systematic interpretation. In the second part, the author aims to present how China’s international roles have changed in recent years and the Chinese appeal and purpose of participating in and improving global governance procedure. The author answers the question of why China has obtained miraculous achievements after its reform and opening-up from academic perspective and provides representative cases with profound but not obscure theoretical interpretation. It is a must-read for anyone who is interested in contemporary China’s economy and foreign affairs.

China's momentous socioeconomic transformation is not taking place in an intellectual vacuum: Chinese scholars and public intellectuals are actively engaged in fervent discussions about the country's domestic and foreign policies, demographic constraints, and ever-growing integration into the world community. This book focuses on China's major think tanks where policies are initiated, and on a few prominent thinkers who influence the way in which elites and the general public understand and deal with the various issues confronting the country. The book examines a number of factors contributing to the rapid rise of Chinese think tanks in the reform era. These include the leadership's call for "scientific decision-making," the need for specialized expertise in economics and finance as China becomes an economic powerhouse, the demand for opinion leaders in the wake of a telecommunication revolution driven by social media, the accumulation of human and financial capital, and the increasing utility of the "revolving door" nature of think tanks. It has been widely noted that think tanks and policy advisors have played an important role in influencing the strategic thinking of the top leadership, including the formation of ideas such as the "Three Represents," "China's peaceful rise," "One Belt, One Road," and the founding of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). In 2014, President Xi Jinping made think tank development a national strategy, and he claimed that "building a new type of think tank with Chinese characteristics is an important and pressing mission." Though the media outside China has often reported on this important development, it has all but escaped rigorous scholarly scrutiny. This book will categorize Chinese think tanks by their various forms, such as government agencies, university-based think tanks, private think tanks, business research centers or consultancies, and civil society groups. It will not only analyze the problems and challenges in China's think tank development, but also reveal the power of ideas.

Despite continuing criticism of the Chinese authoritarian political system, the range of participants in the decision-making process has widened, with different social actors now playing an increasingly important role in the Chinese policymaking process. Accordingly, the role of think tanks in the policymaking process has generated great interest within and outside China. This book explores the behaviour and influence of China's think tanks, and explains the reasons and social consequences of the rise of think tanks in China. The book raises several questions on the topic: How did think tanks emerge in China? What are the essential factors that determine think tanks in terms of building their governmental and personal networks? How do think tanks work and build their influence in the Chinese policy process? What happens to Chinese society when think tanks become important policy participants in the policy process? The book goes on to discuss new perspectives on policy processes and elite politics in China, and empirically, with comparative case study and data from nationwide questionnaire surveys, provides a comprehensive picture of think tanks in the current political system of the country.

"In this fascinating study, leading American China scholar Cheng Li has written and compiled an unprecedented volume on China's rapidly growing community of think tanks. The study includes a thorough inventory of China's research institutions (government and private), and it offers compelling case studies of four leading public intellectuals. But the best part is Cheng Li's own deep insights into this community of thinkers and institutions, their relative strengths and weaknesses, and impact on China's domestic and foreign policies. This volume should be mandatory reading for all China specialists." David Shambaugh George Washington University and author of China's Future China's momentous socioeconomic transformation is not taking place in an intellectual vacuum: Chinese scholars and public intellectuals are actively engaged in fervent discussions about the country's domestic and foreign policies, demographic constraints, and ever-growing integration into the world community. This book focuses on China's major think tanks where policies are initiated, and on a few prominent thinkers who influence the way in which elites and the general public understand and deal with the various issues confronting the country. The book examines a number of factors contributing to the rapid rise of Chinese think tanks in the reform era. These include the leadership's call for "scientific decision-making," the need for specialized expertise in economics and finance as China becomes an economic powerhouse, the demand for opinion leaders in the wake of a telecommunication revolution driven by social media, the accumulation of human and financial capital, and the increasing utility of the "revolving door" nature of think tanks. It has been widely noted that think tanks and policy advisors have played an important role in influencing the strategic thinking of the top leadership, including the formation of ideas such as the "Three Represents," "China's peaceful rise," "One Belt, One Road," and the founding of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). In 2014, President Xi Jinping made think tank development a national strategy, and he claimed that "building a new type of think tank with Chinese characteristics is an important and pressing mission." Though the media outside China has often reported on this important development, it has all but escaped rigorous scholarly scrutiny. This book will categorize Chinese think tanks by their various forms, such as government agencies, university-based think tanks, private think tanks, business research centers or consultancies, and civil society groups. It will not only analyze the problems and challenges in China's think tank development, but also reveal the power of ideas.

China’s opening up to the West, its extraordinary economic rise, and the subsequent internal and global issues, are an object of huge interest and concern. Discourse and Socio-political Transformations in Contemporary China focuses on one aspect of the contemporary Chinese phenomenon, one that is so obvious that it is generally ignored in the mainstream academic departments – that politics, society and transformation are the product of myriad collective linguistic interchanges, some stabilized, some competing, some agonistic, some new and emerging. As an outcome of dialogue between Chinese and Western scholars, the present volume contains case studies that offer a survey of the discourse aspect of Chinese society in social stratification, government service, policy consultancy, higher education, foreign policy, and TV. The conceptual reflections on discourse and critique in different cultures offer new considerations for discourse analysis, including critical discourse analysis, in the context of Chinese society today. This volume was originally published as a special issue of Journal of Language and Politics 9:4 (2010).