China to let 100 think-tanks bloom

The Chinese government is setting up as many as 100 national-level think-tanks to try to replicate the US model of policy advice that is independent of powerful ministries.

The focus on think-tanks comes as a political crackdown under President Xi Jinping cuts the flow of information from China's more independent-minded academics and domestic media organisations available to the bureaucracy.

Mr Xi was vocally displeased last year when the mainland's main policy advisory body on Taiwan, the Taiwan Affairs Office, incorrectly briefed that the ruling Kuomintang would win local elections, diplomatic sources said. Beijing was caught off-guard when the KMT instead suffered a landslide defeat. At the time, even the KMT expected to lose.

"In the past, many think-tank scholars seemed more like government officials," said Wang Wen, a former columnist for a nationalist newspaper who is now executive dean at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies. His think-tank is affiliated with Renmin University in Beijing but funded by a Shanghai-based property developer, and argues for greater Chinese regional influence. "As a young think-tank, we can have influence in policy."

Many existing institutions are scrambling to reinvent themselves as "think-tanks" under the 100 think-tank plan but they may struggle to shed the bureaucratic loyalties that colour their current output.

These include the many research institutes attached to ministries or other bureaucracies that play an active role in setting industrial policy, usually in consultation with powerful state-owned enterprises.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a sprawling body of affiliated institutes headed both by scholars and political appointees, is home to several institutions studying economics or foreign policy. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintains a close association with foreign policy centres staffed by former diplomats.

"They have been dissatisfied with the quality of work and they want better research. But they are unwilling to do what it takes," said Scott Kennedy, a deputy director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think-tank. The model of think-tanks drawing on a variety of sources of funding "doesn't work in China", he said.

In addition to funding, think-tanks in China must weigh the political environment.

Mr Xi is said to value frank advice and decisive action. But a two-year political purge in which hundreds of thousands of officials have been investigated for corruption or other suspected breaches has made both the bureaucracy and academics more cautious.

Five of the 12 top topics for grant funding by the National Social Sciences Fund related to Xi Jinping and his thoughts, the South China Morning Post reported in October.

Many Chinese policy advisers and economists who are heavily influenced by classic liberal economics have come under suspicion for perceived foreign influence.

Senior officials have warned about "textbooks promoting western values" at universities. "Silent Contest", a video put out by the military in 2013, warned against American organisations that have funded Chinese researchers, including Ford Foundation and Asia Foundation, while CASS was shaken last year by allegations of foreign infiltration.

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