In January, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Party and the General Office of the State Council published, “An Opinion on Further Development of Think Tanks with Chinese Characteristics.” China Review News recently published an interview with three experts from Hunan Province to get their input. According to the article, the experts mentioned that, currently, not only was there a lack of focus on the development of think tanks in China; there was also a lack of high quality and influential think tanks. As to the question of what it means for a think tank to have "Chinese characteristics," one answer was that the think tank should participate in forming public policy. It needs to be more diversified while also maintaining its independence. Another answer was that a think tank with Chinese characteristics should reference but not copy the experience from the Western world. It should be clear that the “Party can manage the think tank,” which must use the “Marxism-Leninism, Mao’s Theory, and Socialist Theory with Chinese characteristics” as its guiding ideology. According to the article, it should provide service on strategic issues and public policy, stay diversified, and provide macroeconomic regulation and control.
Source: China Review News Agency, May 14, 2015
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