As an introduction to my ambitions of outlining what it is that Chinese think tanks discuss today, I would like to provide excerpts from a recent article entitled "China´s Beleaguered Intellectuals" found in the most current September 2009 edition of "Current History". This article links my expedition into the 2000 or so Chinese think tanks in existence today to China´s tradition of intellectuals- to the Confucian literati, to be more specific.

According to Merle Goldman, "[Traditionally] China´s premodern intellectuals, the Confucian literati, not only ran the governmental bureacracies but were also viewed as the conscience of society..."

As one begins to chart the course towards outlining what it is that the Chinese think tanks are writing about today, one question is to be raised:Who is the conscience of society nowadays?

The Charter 08 movement is something to be highlighted in this context.

In her article Goldman writes: "A ...recent episode in China´s public discourse points to a new phenomenon that has emerged in the past decade: public intellectuals and other citizens calling on the government to live up to principles to which it has given written approval. On December 10, 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a group of people from all walks of life launched a movement called Charter 08. It presented a blueprint for fundamental legal and political reforms with the goal of achieving a democratic political system.

Patterned on Václav Havel´s Charter 77 movement in the former Czechoslovakia, Charter 08 critisized China´s government for failing to implement human rights provisions that its leaders had signed on to, such as the UN Covenant on Political and Civil Rights, signed in 1998, and 2004 amendments to China´s constitution that include the phrase `respect and protect human rights´.

Charter 08 pointed out that `Unfortunately, most of China´s political progress has extended no further than the paper on which it is written.´ The political reality, it declared, `is that China has many laws but no rule of law; it has a constitution but no constitutional government.´ Charter 08 called for a political system based on democratic institutions of checks and balances..."

Yet, although public intellectuals have only a small space in China, as evidenced by Goldman´s article, there are other spheres- for example foreign policy, economics and the environment, in regard to which debate occurs. It is on these topics that I hope to provide highlights from Chinese think tanks in the future.

I do this with the acknowledgement that Chinese society is a far cry from what Sun Yat-sen, a central public intellectual involved in the Revolution of 1911 which toppled the Imperial dynasty envisioned it to be. His blueprint for a modern China, the Three Principles of the People, included the democratic checks and balances that public intellectuals in China still are calling for today.

Päivi Kuusela/e2