The China Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy or CIIDS was founded in May 2010 by the leading Chinese theorist and strategist Mr. Zheng Bijian, under whose chairmanship, CIIDS has gathered a large group of esteemed statesmen, diplomats, strategists, educators,  economists and academicians as its senior advisors and members of its academic committee. CIIDS considers its core mission to be the brain trust of the top Chinese leadership, conducting research on major domestic and international strategic issues to provide intellectual support and consultancy services on national macro policy making and planning for the Chinese government. In November 2022, with the approval of the State Council, CIIDS was officially registered at the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs as a national-level not-for-profit organization with legal person status under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. 

A staunch proponent and promoter of the “Peaceful Rise of China” doctrine, CIIDS is deeply committed to fostering convergence of interests in all directions and at various levels and building communities of interests between China and the wider world, thereby delivering peaceful development for all. Since its inception, CIIDS has conducted a wide range of major research projects on areas as varied as China’s international strategy, major country strategy, neighborhood strategy, domestic innovation & development strategy, cyberspace governance, energy governance, and social governance. Many of CIIDS’s policy inputs have been taken up by the Chinese leadership and incorporated into the country’s domestic and foreign policies.

True to its mission of helping the world better understand China through telling the China Story well and making China’s voice heard, CIIDS has undertaken a series of major international communication projects under the grand theme of Understanding China. Among the most prominent is the Understanding China Conference or UCC, which has thus far been successfully convened for 8 times in collaboration with the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs, the People’s Governments of Beijing Municipality and Guangdong Province and world-renowned think tanks. Over the years, the UCC has seen an accumulative total of hundreds of globally recognized statesmen, strategists, business leaders, academics and media professionals sit with their Chinese counterparts for in-depth and heated discussions, well establishing itself as one of the most influential platforms for the world to understand China’s development strategies.

President Xi Jinping has been giving his kind attention to and warm support for the Conference since day one, having met with the international guests for three times and sent five congratulatory messages over the past decade. In 2021, the President addressed the opening ceremony of the Conference via video remarks.

In March 2020, the UCC was formally recognized by the Central Party and State authorities as a regular international event (Secretariat housed at CIIDS), scheduled to kick off following the conclusion of the CPC Central Committee yearly plenum or the CPC National Congress to get across to the world the guiding principles of these CPC national conventions as well as the Party’s practice of statecraft in running the country.

Joining hands with Xinhua News Agency, China Media Group (CMG), and China International Communications Group (CICG), among others, in a bid to present to the international audience an all-round and multi-dimensional China, CIIDS has launched a whole slew of key communication projects, including The Understanding China Book Series, The Understanding China Documentary: An Exchange On China, The Understanding China short video series, and The TED-inspired Understanding China Talks, to name just a few.

CIIDS currently runs nine research arms, namely Center for High-Quality Development Research, Center for International Cultural Exchanges and Studies, Center for Chinese Civilization and Chinese Path Research, Center for Chinese Economic Research, Institute for Education Development and Evaluation, Center for Financial Research, Center for International Strategic Research, Center for Digital Governance Research, and Center for Carbon Neutrality Oriented Smart Manufacturing Innovation. On the strength of these research arms, CIIDS has been able to conduct academic and policy researches in such fields as politics, economy, education, science and technology, culture, diplomacy and ecological environment, and has yielded many important and rewarding results.