China Policy Journal Volume 1, Number 2, Fall 2019 | Page 10

China Policy Journal • Vol. 1, No. 2 • Fall 2019 Chinese Foreign Policy Think Tanks’ Policy Influence: A Case Study on the Influence Mechanism of CIIS and SIIS over BRI Policymaking * Hua Xin 1 Abstract As China is intensifying its policymaking activities on the “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI), its foreign policy think tanks’ contributions become more prominent, and their policy influence deserves a meticulous scrutiny. Starting out from a theoretic paradigm of “field of power” and an analytical framework of “policymaking pendulum between horizontal and vertical fragmentation,” this paper conducts a case study on the central-level China Institute of International Studies (CIIS) and the provincial-level Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS), analyzing the mechanism of their influence over China’s BRI policymaking through a focus on their relevant meetings, so as to evaluate their connections with four “subfields” (politics, business, academia, and media) of China’s “field of power,” particularly their relations with political leadership and policymakers. It reveals that, while CIIS enjoys more advantages and is more closely connected to some parts of the central-level policymakers than SIIS, the links of SIIS with central ministries are still more intimate than its contacts with provincial policymakers. This reveals that China’s power and resources for BRI-related policymaking are largely concentrated within central and top leadership, which might be further strengthened by the latest round of adjustment on central party and state institutions initiated in March 2018. Furthermore, the links of CIIS and SIIS with business, academia, and media are varied. The policy influence mechanism of Chinese foreign policy think tanks deserves more scholarly attentions and further detailed case analysis in future. * This article is part of the output of three research projects on think tank studies supported by the Education Commission of the Shanghai Municipal Government, the Shanghai Municipal Office for the Planning of Philosophy and Social Sciences, and China’s Education Ministry, respectively. (The registration numbers of these three projects are: 13YJCGJW013, 2012FGJ001, and 13ZS048.) 1 Center for EU Studies, Shanghai International Studies University, and Center for National Strategic Studies, Shanghai Jiaotong University; [email protected], [email protected], xinhua@ shisu.edu.cn 1 doi: 10.18278/cpj.1.2.2