Chinese think tanks should avoid any great leap forward
- By Han Fangming
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Relations between think tanks and market
Nonprofit think tanks should be prevented from the pursuit of commercial interests, which may cause their deviation from principal values. However, their intellectual products need to be tested by the market for their value to public policies so as to sort out the weak from the strong.
However, it is very difficult, especially in this era of globalization when the booming info-communication constantly creates new situations, for think tanks to stay abreast of developments.
To become competitive, think tanks are required to focus on farsighted research and provide good intellectual products that meet both domestic and overseas policy demands. Only by doing so can their value be maximized.
Relations between think tanks and academic
Think tanks are fundamentally different from academic institutes in regard to their positions and research. Although think tanks are genetically related to ivory towers, their focus is policy research rather than pure academic study. They should ensure timeliness and acuity in their thinking to serve policy making, and yet abide by the academic paradigms to distinguish their work from opinions or unsophisticated policy analysis.
Academics attach importance to the methodology of deductions, while, policy research mainly focuses on empirical comparison. Despite their differences, however, both need theoretical support, without which policy research would be less persuasive and narrow in scope. Therefore, a think tank is responsible for searching for solutions to real problems while strictly following academic paradigms.
All in all, think tanks evolve in coordination with the government, market and the public. Their sustainable development requires not only enthusiasm but also professionalism and rationality to avoid creating another "Great-Leap-Forward" in the intellectual market.
The writer is deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and chairman of the Charhar Institute.
The article was translated by Wu Jin. Its unabridged version was published in Chinese.
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
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