China Policy Journal Volume 1, Number 2, Fall 2019 | Page 4

Introduction China Policy Journal • Vol. 1, No. 2 • Fall 2019 Think Tanks and Policy Analysis in China: New Rules and New Roles Zhu Xufeng 1 Think tanks have become an increasingly more important research topic in the fields of political science and public policy 2 . Since the New Millennium, international scholars on think tanks have expanded their research landscapes from previous studies on think tanks within Western political culture to different political systems 3 . Researches on Chinese think tanks emerged when observers within and outside China have realized that the traditional “fragmented authoritarianism” framework would be inevitably outdated since the new social policy actors have been playing increasing more salient roles in the policy process 4 . However, while China’s economic 1 School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China [email protected] 2 Diane Stone, Capturing the Political Imagination: Think Tanks and the Policy Process (London: Frank Cass, 1996); Andrew Rich, Think Tanks, Public Policy, and the Politics of Expertise (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005); Donald E. Abelson, Do Think Tanks Matter? Assessing the Impact of Public Policy Institutes (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s Press, 2009); Thomas Medvetz, Think Tanks in America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012); James G. McGann, Anna Viden, and Jillian Rafferty, eds., How Think Tanks Shape Social Development Policies (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014). 3 Philip Schlesinger, “Creativity and the Experts. New Labor, Think Tanks, and the Policy Process,” The International Journal of Press/Politics 14, no. 1 (2009): 3–20; Diane Stone, Andrew Denham, and Mark Garnett, eds., Think Tanks Across Nations: A Comparative Approach (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998); Anthony M. Bertelli and Jeffrey B. Wenger, “Demanding Information: Think Tanks and the US Congress,” British Journal of Political Science 39, no. 2 (2009): 225–242; James G. McGann, Democratization and Market Reform in Developing and Transitional Countries (London: Routledge, 2010); John. L. Campbell and Ove K. Pedersen, “Knowledge Regimes and Comparative Political Economy,” in Ideas and Politics in Social Science Research, eds. Daniel Béland and Robert Henry Knox (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 167–190; Jesper Dahl Kelstrup, “Quantitative Differences in Think Tank Dissemination Activities in Germany, Denmark and the UK,” Policy Sciences 50, no. 1 (2017): 125–137. 4 Murray Scott Tanner, “Changing Windows on a Changing China: The Evolving ‘Think Tank’ System and the Case of the Public Security Sector,” The China Quarterly, no. 171 (2002): 559–74; Barry Naughton, “China's Economic Think Tanks: Their Changing Role in the 1990s,” The China Quarterly, no. 171 (2002): 625–635; Bonnie S. Glaser, Philip C. Saunders, “Chinese Civilian Foreign Policy Research Institutes: Evolving Roles and Increasing Influence,” The China Quarterly, no. 171 (2002): 597–616; David Shambaugh, “China's International Relations Think Tanks: Evolving Structure and Process,” The China Quarterly, no. 171 (2002): 575–596; Andrew C. Mertha, “Fragmented Authoritarianism 2.0: Political Pluralization in the Chinese Policy Process,” The China Quarterly 200 (2009): 995–1012; Zhu Xufeng, “Government Advisors or Public Advocates? Roles of Think Tanks in China from the Perspective of Regional Variations,” The China Quarterly, no. 207 (2011): 668–686; Pascal Abb, “China's Foreign Policy Think Tanks: Institutional Evolution and Changing iii doi: 10.18278/cpj.1.2.1