Thursday, January 23, 2014

China's Think Tanks Lack Quality?


Hot off the press from UPI:
China has the world's second-largest number of think tanks after the United States, but experts question their quality.
A report by the think tank and civil societies program at the University of Pennsylvania said China had 426 think tanks as of August of last year, compared to the United States' 1,828, but only six of the Chinese institutions ranked among the top 100 worldwide. The rankings were determined by the think tanks' academic successes and global influence.
The country's top rated Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing got only the 20th rating on the world list, which was topped by the Washington-based Brookings Institution. The top 10 positions were taken by U.S. and European institutions.

This leads us to another question.  Are the University of Pennsylvania think tank rankings biased towards the US and Europe?  Think Tank Watch is aware of other think tank "rankings" outside of the US, but none are as comprehensive as the one compiled by UPenn.