The Lauder Institute of University of Pennsylvania (T.T.C.S.P.) released a report indicating that the world’s best think tanks are from China. The report was the 2016 Global Go To Think Tank Index.
The index listed 175 institutions which were at the forefront of research and scientific study. There were nine think tanks that came from China.
The think tanks included are Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; China Institute of International Studies; Development Research Center of the State Council; Shanghai Institute for International Studies; Institute of International and Strategic Studies Peking University; Unirule Institute of Economics; Center for China and Globalization; and Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies; and China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.
The China Institute of Contemporary International Relations ranked the highest at 33rd place.
Experts said that the results of the index were good news for China and were indicative of the fast progress that the country has made.
According to Wang Huiyao, president of the Center for China and Globalization, "It's very meaningful that a number of Chinese think tanks are influencing the world," adding that more think tanks are needed to help our government in making decisions accurately and scientifically.
Meanwhile, think tanks serve more like a "soft power," which can also help enhance our country's international stature, said Wang.
Other institutes who made it to the index are from South Korea, Japan and India.
While the best think tanks in China dominated the world's research, some are being censored. Recently, the website of Unirule Institute of Economics, a think tank which criticized the government, was shut down.
The think tank is founded and led by Mao Yushi. He started Unirule 24 years ago. The think tank's director is Sheng Hong and said that their site was removed because Mao criticized a top judge.
A legal activist, Xiong Wei, said, "Unirule is undoubtedly the country's most influential think tank in the private sector and it blazed the trail. But Beijing only wants think tanks under its control."