The media and think tanks in China: the construction and propagation of a think tank

Zhang, D. (2021)

Article / Letter to editor

With China’s rapid growth as a regional and global power, think tanks in China have received increasing attention from politicians and academics, mostly due to the achievements of academic and processing policies. Recently, collaborations between the media and think tanks have become increasingly tight. This article aims to explore China’s think tank industry and their relationship with the media by interviewing two members of staff from one of China’s most prominent think tanks and observing the Institute for six months. This study has found that China’s think tanks have a close relationship with the government and the media. The traditional Chinese Confucian culture and the "bureaucracy-oriented tradition" have a significant role in the think tanks’ political behavior. This leads the think tanks to play the role of being an advocate of the government. Although social media, to some extent, liberalizes the work style of China’s think tanks, the think tanks’ use of social media still follows the traditional media logic to facilitate the government’s interests. Overall, the study argues that Chinese think tanks show features of being a “Government-lead non-governmental organization" with a semi-official identity to complement the official authorities.

• Think Tank
• Media
• Social Media
• International Relations
• China

• All authors: Zhang, D.
• Date: 2021-03-25
• Journal: Media Asia
• Volume: 48
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 123 - 138
• DOI: doi:10.1080/01296612.2021.1899785