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On October 24, 2006, the Brookings Institution’s John L. Thornton China Center and China’s Tsinghua University founded a joint center for Chinese public policy research at the university’s School of Public Policy and Management in Beijing, China. As the institution’s first international center, the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy (BTC) is a leader in Brookings’s evolution into a global think tank with on-the-ground research support capacity for scholars in the region. Under the direction of Dr. Geng Xiao, the BTC provides cutting-edge research, analysis, dialogue, and publications that focus on the challenges, opportunities, and implications of China’s rapid development.
Challenges to China's Development
China’s rapid growth faces many difficult challenges, such as securing energy to fuel its economic growth, forming sound macro-economic policy and financial institutions, building a modern legal infrastructure, sustaining and balancing rural and urban development, and modernizing the country’s health care system and social welfare infrastructure.
The research agenda of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy (BTC) focuses on these challenges, and provides policymakers with trenchant analysis and opportunities for timely dialogue.
Critical Issues for Research and Dialogue
The BTC addresses a wide range of challenges and issues that are critical to China’s modernization. While the Center’s research agenda is dynamic and responsive to new developments, major areas of on-going research and analysis include:
Financial Sector Reform: China’s financial sector is the linchpin for many of the country’s policies and initiatives. The BTC financial sector research project focuses on finding ways to absorb and integrate technical knowledge and insights derived from both foreign and domestic financial experts.
Health Care Reform: China is currently rebuilding its health care system and infrastructure. The BTC’s research and programming efforts in this area are geared towards providing innovative policy options and solutions. On-going dialogues have focused on bottle-necks in the system, the roles of competition and regulation in health care markets, comparative studies of health care systems and their lessons for China, and how best to provide health care for the poor.
Energy and Environment: China’s economic growth hinges on its ability to secure energy resources and ensure that they are used in a manner that is efficient and environmentally-sustainable. The Brookings-Tsinghua Center is engaged in on-going research into the domestic challenges and consequences of China’s energy policies. Other important topics include the implications for the international community of China’s increasing energy demand.
BTC Publications and Activities
The BTC utilizes a broad array of media venues to deliver its scholars’ research and analysis to top decision-makers and the public. Publications of the BTC include the Policy Study Briefing Series, which summarizes lectures, workshops, and roundtables hosted at the Center; reports issued following major conferences and international dialogues; and the Research Paper Series, which publishes papers written by Center scholars and associates. Scholars from the center have also appeared in a large number of leading business publications, Chinese newspapers, and on television and radio programs.
BTC activities include
Public programs: The BTC hosts a number of events in Beijing every year that serve as venues for senior Chinese and American officials, business leaders, and experts to discuss policy issues relevant to China’s development.
Roundtables and seminars: In addition to public programs in Beijing, the BTC also holds private roundtable discussions with Chinese officials, scholars, and visiting delegations.
Conferences: The BTC also organizes meetings where multiple delegations from around the world can discuss the challenges and implications of China’s growth from a global perspective.