Power of Ideas

<!-- <description> -->China's momentous socioeconomic transformation is not taking place in an intellectual vacuum: Chinese scholars and public intellectuals are actively engaged in fervent discussions about the country's domestic and foreign policies, demographic constraints, and ever-growing integration into the world community. This book focuses on China's major think tanks where policies are initiated, and on a few prominent thinkers who influence the way in which elites and the general public understand and deal with the various issues confronting the country.
The book examines a number of factors contributing to the rapid rise of Chinese think tanks in the reform era. These include the leadership's call for “scientific decision-making,” the need for specialized expertise in economics and finance as China becomes an economic powerhouse, the demand for opinion leaders in the wake of a telecommunication revolution driven by social media, the accumulation of human and financial capital, and the increasing utility of the “revolving door” nature of think tanks.
It has been widely noted that think tanks and policy advisors have played an important role in influencing the strategic thinking of the top leadership, including the formation of ideas such as the “Three Represents,” “China's peaceful rise,” “One Belt, One Road,” and the founding of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). In 2014, President Xi Jinping made think tank development a national strategy, and he claimed that “building a new type of think tank with Chinese characteristics is an important and pressing mission.”
Though the media outside China has often reported on this important development, it has all but escaped rigorous scholarly scrutiny. This book will categorize Chinese think tanks by their various forms, such as government agencies, university-based think tanks, private think tanks, business research centers or consultancies, and civil society groups. It will not only analyze the problems and challenges in China's think tank development, but also reveal the power of ideas.
<!-- </description> -->Contents:Introduction:The Power of Ideas and Ideas of Power: Chinese Think Tanks in Search of ProminenceProminent Chinese Thinkers:Hu Angang (Demographer and Economist): Championing Chinese Optimism and ExceptionalismYu Keping (Political Scientist): Making Democracy Safe for ChinaHe Weifang (Legal Scholar): Fighting for a Constitutional China through Public Enlightenment and Legal ProfessionalismHe Huaihong (Philosopher and Ethicist): Bringing Ethics Back into Chinese DiscourseThe Dynamics and Constraints of Chinese Think Tank Development:China's New Think Tanks: Where Officials, Entrepreneurs, and Scholars InteractAn Imperative for China's New Think Tanks: Seeking Uniqueness and DiversityThe Prospects for China's Private Think TanksDissemination of Ideas and Credibility of Think Tank ResearchThe Role of Think Tanks in Reconstructing Values in Present-Day ChinaThe Role of Think Tanks in Promoting Mutual Understanding and Preventing Misjudgment in Sino–US RelationsChinese Think Tanks Go GlobalTowards a More Pluralistic Decision-Making Process:Interest Group Politics in China: A Paradox of Hope and FearShaping China's Foreign Policy: The Role of Foreign-Educated ReturneesConclusion: Top-Level Design of Reform and China's Political Future:Will China's “Top-Level Design of Reform” Prevent a “Bottom-Up Revolution”?Xi Jinping's Reform Agenda: Promises and Risks<!-- </contents> --><!-- <readership> -->
Readership: Students, researchers, and academics who are interested in the important role the Chinese think tanks play and the strong impact of the nation's most influential public intellectuals on China's domestic development and foreign policy.
<!-- </readership> -->Think Tanks;Chinese Thinkers;Chinese Politics;Public Intellectuals;Soft Power;Decision-Making;Interest Group Politics;Foreign-Educated ReturneesKey Features:This will be the first English book on the increasingly important role of China's think tanks in both Chinese domestic development and foreign policy published by a non- PRC scholar who works at Brookings Institution, the world's leading think tankThis conceptually innovative and data-rich book reveals both the important role of Chinese think tanks and the strong impact of the nation's most influential public intellectuals on China's domestic development and foreign policyInternational communities will benefit from a solid understanding of the subject, especially at a time when China has more influence on global economic and regional security issues than at any previous time in modern history