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partners are well-known government entities. The Chinese Institute of Contemporary International Relations and the University of International Relations, both of which have links to the Ministry of State Security (MSS), host conferences on US-China relations and/or Track 2 dialogues. So do the Foreign Ministry—affiliated China Institute of International Studies, Chinese People’s Institute for Foreign Affairs,
and the China Foreign Affairs University. The Charhar Institute is also involved
in such activities, although its institutional linkages are unclear.
More recently, Chinese think tanks professing to be independent from direct government control have begun to actively engage US counterparts. The think-tank Intellisia is one such organization that has sponsored dialogues with US scholars. The Center for China and Globalization is another such “independent” think tank, with more than a hundred researchers and staff. According to several think-tank analysts, its founder and head, Wang Huiyao, actively solicits invitations to speak in US think- tank settings. In May 2018, however, Senator Marco Rubio publicly questioned why Wang’s CCP affiliations—most particularly his work with the CCP’s United Front Work Department as a standing director of the China Overseas Friendship Association— were not mentioned as part of his biography in an invitation to an upcoming event at a DC-based think tank. Despite the fact that the think tank planned to acknowledge Wang’s position during the panel presentation, given the ensuing public scrutiny, Wang dropped out of the event. He later appeared, however, at another US think-tank event without his government affiliation noted and without provoking attention from any member of Congress. For such “independent” Chinese think tanks, organizing conferences can give them a significant boost in prestige at home. One Chinese think-tank director informed an American think-tank analyst that he received several hundred thousand dollars from the university’s party secretary as a bonus for bringing such a prestigious delegation of Western China watchers to China.
Finally, a group of several senior Chinese government officials and think-tank scholars from different institutions has emerged as an important generator of China-US think tank cooperation. This group includes such well-known figures as Fu Ying (director of the NPC’s Foreign Affairs Committee), Wang Jisi (director of Peking University’s Institute of International and Strategic Studies), Yuan Peng (president of CICIR), and Wang Wen (executive dean of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University), who are all well funded and able to pay for the activities of the Chinese side, as well as travel and hotel stays for Americans who participate in their projects in China.
Fu Ying emerges as the senior figure in a growing number of US-China interactions. According to several think-tank analysts, she works hard to structure projects in ways to ensure the best possible outcome from the Chinese perspective. This includes,
for example, partnering primarily—although not solely—with scholars who are
Think Tanks
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