China Policy Journal Volume 1, Number 2, Fall 2019 | Page 6

Introduction
spotted during the decision-making
process for major policies concerning
national economic and social development.
However, many important questions
remain unanswered. What new
roles do experts and think tanks play
in the policy process in China? How
do different think tanks participate in
the process of production of analytical
advice or advocacy to decision makers?
What are the organizational structures
and formal or informal rules within the
processes of decision making to absorb
analytical information from within or
outside the government?
In addressing these questions
above, in August 2017, Tsinghua University
and Hong Kong University of
Science and Technology co-organized
a two-day workshop, “Policy Analysis
in China: Policy Professionals, Think
Tanks, and Policy System” at Tsinghua
University, aiming at bringing together
cutting-edge researches that seek to address
questions above based on a better
understanding of theories and practices
of policy participation by think tanks in
China. 30 paper proposals were submitted
to the workshop and the committee
accepted 15 full papers to be presented
at the workshop. After the workshop,
the guest editors invited 7 papers (two
of which was authored by authors who
did not present their papers at the workshop)
to be submitted to the special issue
of the China Policy Journal. Finally,
after two or three rounds of reviews and
revisions, the special issue accepted six
articles. This special issue attempts to
seek a better understanding of theories
and practices of think tanks in China by
exploring a series of questions concerning
the structure and process of policy
making in China. Focusing on the different
cases in which think tanks have
played new roles within the new rules
established within the new political and
policy ecology, we explore formal and
informal institutions shaping the interaction
among think tanks, policy makers
and other policy actors, and analyse
the input, process, output and outcome
of their policy involvement.
The Contributions to This
Special Issue
The first paper “Chinese Foreign Policy
Think Tanks’ Policy Influence: A
Case Study on the Influence Mechanism
of CIIS and SIIS over BRI Policymaking”
conducts a case study on
the central-level China Institute of
International Studies (CIIS) and the
provincial-level Shanghai Institute for
International Studies (SIIS) to analyze
the mechanism of their influence over
China’s “Belt Road Initiative” (BRI)
policymaking. With a comparison between
two official foreign policy think
tanks, the CIIS and the SIIS, Xin Hua
reveals that China’s power and resources
for BRI-related policy making 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
zhongguo tese xinxing zhiku jianshe” [To promote the construction of quality new-type think tank
with Chinese characteristics in a reform and innovation manner], Chinese Economic Times, 3 February
2015.
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