This book explores under what conditions Chinese think tanks perform their main functions and duties given the numerous limits to civic participation exemplified by China's profoundly rooted authoritarian practices on the one hand, and a growing, yet still well-controlled, civil society on the other. Advancing a new conceptual framework and an alternative classification, the author proposes to 'rethink' Chinese think tanks according to their functionality. In doing so, the author argues that the current fourth generation of think tanks in China perform three essential functions within PRC's...