Remodeling China's think tanks

Innovative talent, institutional guarantees and effective online and offline communication are needed to boost their global influence

At a recent meeting of the Central Leading Group for Overall Reform, President Xi Jinping, who is the group's leader, stressed that China should build a batch of think tanks with relatively big influence and good international reputation, saying its think tank building has increasingly failed to adapt to changing situations.

With this remark, Xi has not only pointed out the existing problems facing China's think tanks, but also outlined explicit requirements for their future development.

Currently, China's exploration for its think tank development model is mainly based on the experiences in Western countries, especially the United States. Due to its different political system, history and culture, any move to transplant the Western model to China will cause its think tank development to be unsuitable for its national conditions.

As part of the efforts to push for the modernization of its national governance system, China should not only learn from the experiences of other countries, it should also learn from its own governance wisdom over the past millennia, in a bid to creatively build a new type of think tank development model.

History and the present both show that as knowledge-intensive bodies, the core competitiveness of think tanks is their intellectual capital, and that only through boosting their institutional guarantees, human resources and transmission capacity can China's think tanks become a real driving force for the nation's rejuvenation.

China's ancient rulers had a long tradition of consulting with trusted advisers on the making of significant decisions. Although China's think tanks in a modern sense emerged after reform and opening-up in 1978, its think tank development began to bud as early as in the Spring Autumn and Warring States period (770-221 BC) and experienced a boom at both the official and non-official levels after that.

However, to creatively develop a new type of think tank with Chinese characteristics, the country must try to combine Western experiences and contemporary theories with its present national conditions and historical traditions.

In recent years, China's think tank building has boomed and a number of new types have already sprung up. However, a series of problems have emerged in this process, from the imbalanced development among different types of think tanks and their lack of a competitive and complementary mechanism to their weak public relations awareness, their inability to influence public opinions using the Internet and the lack of ideological innovation ability. The phenomenon of excessive media-like development and commercialization has also emerged among a few domestic think tanks.

The competitiveness of think tanks is their intellectual capital, which comprises their talent, institutional guarantees and their ability to disseminate their ideas.

As knowledge-intensive bodies, the value of think tanks' existence lies in the innovation of their thinking, which requires talent, including those at the leadership level, who should possess political wisdom, the ability to follow policies and manage the think tanks effectively, as well as a global vision and the ability to use effectively the various channels of communication. At the same time, research-focused talent, who should be experts in their respective fields, are also needed.

To better boost its think tank development, China also needs to set up sound institutional guarantees. Without such guarantees, no matter how many think tanks are established or how many funds are invested, the quality and influence of the nation's think tanks will be compromised. For their better development, the Chinese government needs to form a policy consultation mechanism for its decision-making. Such a policy consultation mechanism must be suitable for the country's economic and social development conditions.

At the same time, the country should learn the modern corporate management system widely applied by the United States and other Western countries in the operation of their think tanks, in which researchers play the core role while administration plays a supporting role, a practice that can offer a sound institutional guarantee for the innovative thinking of research personnel. Besides, a mechanism should also be created to promote the smooth flow between think tank personnel and incumbent government officials.

The huge influence of Western think tanks is inseparable from their huge input into the dissemination of their work. In comparison, while their Chinese counterparts have also attached importance to this, their efforts to boost their dissemination ability related to new media and the Internet are still inadequate.

Based on the experiences of other countries and its own historical practices, think tanks with Chinese characteristics will be established to serve its national prosperity and progress. But according to relevant data analysis, the websites of the majority of Chinese think tanks have not established their international influence, not to mention their application of various kinds of new media and dissemination means.

China's think tanks should learn from their counterparts in the West and improve their online and new media presence to increase their domestic and global influence.

The author is deputy dean of the National Academy of Development and Strategy, Renmin University of China.