Space to think? Chinese think tanks and the uneven development of party-state power

The campaign to propagate a new generation of think tanks “with Chinese characteristics” has been one of Xi Jinping's signature projects. Charting the rise of China's “new-type” think tanks and their evolving organizational ecology, the paper asks what it means to think like a party-state through an extended ideational infrastructure. This question is explored with reference to the idealized (liberal, Western) norm of the “independent” think tank, but more importantly on its own terms, and in relation to the distinctive spatiality of party-state power in China. To this end, the paper juxtaposes a top-down reading of China's think-tank program, via authorized policy frameworks, mandates, and “guidance” from Beijing, with the experiences of an outlier case, the strategically important region of the Greater Bay Area (GBA), encompassing Hong Kong, Macao, and the Pearl River Delta. Literally and politically distant from Beijing, this was an historic epicenter of the reform process, with a long-established reputation for experimentation and independent thinking. Here, new-type think tanks are being rolled out in tandem with the ideological project of national unification, the ongoing “integration” of this uniquely heterogeneous and globally integrated region, the securitization of Hong Kong, geoeconomic stresses, and geopolitical realignments. The paper argues that the conditions of existence and operating environment of Chinese think tanks render them for the most part creatures of, and appendages to, an unevenly developed party-state, albeit with consequences that are not entirely predictable.