SECTION 5
Think Tanks
Think tanks play an unparalleled role in shaping American public opinion, media narratives, and US government policy. For this reason, they are high-value targets for lobbying and influence activities by foreign governments and nongovernmental actors, including those from the People’s Republic of China.
Think tanks in the United States date to the early twentieth century, when industrial capital and private philanthropy (led by the likes of Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew W. Mellon, and Henry Ford) began to endow private nonprofit research institutions at a time when there was increasing government demand for expertise on a growing range of public policy issues. Over the past century, think tanks have come to play ever more vital roles in the American public policy process, and they contribute both directly and indirectly to public education, a richer public dialogue via the media, greater civic engagement, and better-informed government policy formulation.
Of the approximately 1,800 think tanks in the United States today, about half are research institutions located within US universities. For the purpose of this section, however, only those think tanks located in nonuniversity private sector settings are considered. Most of these think tanks and research institutions enjoy tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, which stipulates that they are restricted from legislative lobbying as “action organizations.” Institutions that receive this tax-exempt status must either be charitable philanthropic organizations or research organizations (think thanks) that operate in a supposedly nonpartisan way and in the general public interest. Because they are largely privately funded through donor contributions, US think tanks compete tenaciously for support, professional expertise, and public impact.
Roles of Think Tanks in American Society
The universe of think tanks in the United States is very diverse, and each think tank performs different missions for different audiences and clients through different means of output. Four roles are especially relevant to discussions of Chinese interest and potential influence seeking.
The first and most important role is educating the public and better informing the
“policy community.” The majority of mainstream think tanks consciously perform these functions through a variety of mechanisms: publishing books, articles in
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020516