On June 5, 2015, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and Shanghai Municipal People’s Government signed a cooperation agreement in Shanghai. Their two parties would join hands to build Shanghai Academy and make new contributions to the implementation of the Four-pronged Comprehensive Strategy by building a high-level and new-type international think tank with Chinese characteristics. Yang Xiong, Deputy Party Secretary and Mayor of Shanghai, and Wang Weiguang, President of CASS and Secretary of the Party Group of CASS, attended the signing ceremony. Li Peilin, Vice President of CASS and Member of the Party Group of CASS, and Weng Tiehui, Vice Mayor of Shanghai, signed the agreement on behalf of their two parties.

Wang Weiguang expressed that the cooperation between CASS and Shanghai Municipal People’s Government on building Shanghai Academy would provide new power for CASS to realize the Central Government’s positioning requirements. Wang Weiguang noted that Shanghai Academy would closely integrate theory with practice and display the role of a new-type think tank to provide tangible service and support for Shanghai’s social and economic development.

Yang Xiong expressed that the state was currently vigorously promoting such major strategies as the construction of “One Belt and One Road”, “Yangtze River Economic Belt” and the pilot free trade zones. He noted that the cooperation between CASS and Shanghai Municipal People’s Government on building the new-type think tank would provide intellectual support for Shanghai to better carry out the national strategies. He affirmed that Shanghai would spare no efforts to support the work of Shanghai Academy and expects Shanghai Academy to create an innovative system mechanism and deliver high-level research results.

Wang Weiguang required their two parties to do a good job in the construction of Shanghai Academy: first, it must uphold correct political directions and academic orientation; second, it must serve for the overall social and economic development of Shanghai; third, it must establish a set of well-managed, vibrant, efficient and effective think tank management systems and operation mechanisms according to the policies and regulations made by both parties; fourth, it must insist on pragmatic theory and practice in the scientific pursuit of truth, in order to build Shanghai Academy into a modern new think tank and modern research entity.

It’s learned that the cooperation between the two parties would carry out work centering on national strategies and the major tasks that Shanghai undertook as a pioneer in the move to deepen the reform, and strive to build Shanghai Academy into a high-end think tank, a high-end talent cultivation base, a high-end platform for international exchanges and cooperation, and a high-end national situation investigation base. In order to advance the construction and development of Shanghai Academy, the two parties would actively innovate the governance structure and improve the related leadership system and operation mechanism by relying on related institutions of CASS, Shanghai University. and Shanghai Municipality Development Research Center in a comprehensive manner.