At present, the demand for high-quality products of think tanks by the party and the government is growing. The problem of low quality and lack of innovation in think tank products has become a shortcoming, which restrict the construction of new think tanks with Chinese characteristics. For example, “high-quality research”, “high-quality products”, “high-quality think tanks”, “high-quality intellectual support” and other phrases related to “high quality” all reflect the urgent pursuit of high-quality development in the construction of new think tanks. To a certain extent, it reflects that the construction of new think tanks faces the arduous task of promoting innovation and improving quality. China's economic development has turned to a high-quality development stage, and China's think tank development is also facing opportunities and challenges for transformation and upgrading and towards high-quality development. It is precisely because of the demand of high quality development for high quality governance that there is an urgent need to support high quality decision-making with high quality research. It can be said that "high quality" has become one of the core issues that cannot be circumvented by the construction of new think tanks.

Of course, "high quality" is not just a concept, it is a model; it is not just a result, it is a process. Understanding the connotation of "high quality" requires both a historical perspective and a systematic perspective. In fact, the development of China's think tanks is undergoing a historic transition from extensional development to connotative development. We need transform our attention from focusing on quantity expansion and form change to focusing on improving quality  and content innovation. “High quality” is the inherent requirement of this transformation. From a deeper level, “high quality” reflects the urgent need to promote the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, improve the decision support system with Chinese characteristics, and strengthen the national soft power. It is based on the high-quality research achievements of think tanks to meet the high-quality decision-making consultation needs of the party and the government. Then, High quality consulting supports high quality decision making, high quality decision making leads to high quality development.

“High quality” is not only reflected in the high quality of research achievements, but also how to produce high quality think tank products is more important than what kind of high quality think tank products are produced. If we broaden our horizons, "high quality" actually covers the entire decision-making consultation system, which is related to the reform of the think tank production methods, supply methods, and service methods. Therefore, in the transformation of think tanks, strengthening the construction of new think tanks with Chinese characteristics, we must guide all aspects of high quality, especially the three aspects, the high quality production, high quality supply and high quality service of the new think tank. Under the background of transformation and upgrading of the decision-making consultation needs of the party and the government, the three aspects are mainly from the supply side to ensure the realization of high quality supply, in order to achieve a higher level of supply and demand matching, supply and demand balance.

Ensuring high quality service. The most fundamental thing is to achieve an effective match between high-quality decision-making consulting demands and high-quality decision-making consulting services. This requires a new type of think tank to focus on the overall situation, serve the center, and accurately meet the decision-making demands of the party and the government. Furthermore, in order to provide high-quality, efficient and appropriate services, it is necessary to improve the research and judgment mechanism of think tanks for the demands of party and government decision-making consultation. On the one hand, think tanks need to understand the demands of the party and government in time. In particular, by establishing and improving system, like Government information disclosure, Soliciting opinions for major decisions, Policy evaluation etc., think tanks could fully participate in the public decision-making process, in order to accurately understand the party and government decision-making consulting demands. On the other hand, think tanks need to in depth analyze the decision-making consulting demands. In particular, by constructing scientific analytical methods and using modern information technologies such as “Big Data”, we will focus on the major strategic demands of the party and the government, and in depth do basic and forward-looking research to ensure that research achievements can effectively meet the high-quality decision-making demands of the party and the government. 

Ensuring high quality supply. The key is to make high-quality think tank products stand out in a fair competition environment. This requires us to further improve the decision-making consulting service supply system, form the supply pattern of decision-making consultation service with multiple characteristics, orderly competition and strong supervision. Specifically, we need to do the following three aspects simultaneously. First, from the overall development level of the industry, we should promote the new think tanks to become more professional, specialized, , high-quality and high-end, avoid low level and repetitive construction, strive to form a "special and excellent" think tank product supply structure, reduce the supply ratio of repetitive, low-end, low-quality think tank products, increase the proportion of effective supply of innovative, high-end, high-quality think tank products. Second, we should establish and improve the system of the government procurement decision-making consulting service, optimize the supply of think tank products by means of marketization, establish a diversified and multi-level think tank product supply market system. Through effective competition, we strive to form a good market environment that is conducive to the high quality products of think tanks. Third, we should establish and improve industry standards and industry regulatory systems, adhere to high-level, high-quality, high-end orientation, establish a standardized and effective reward and punishment mechanism, prevent this phenomenon of “Bad money drives out good”, guided to form a good industry atmosphere of “winning by quality”.

Ensuring high quality production. The core is to change the way of production of think tank products. We must take reform and innovation as the driving force to further improve the governance structure of new think tanks, specifically in the three aspects: innovation in research methods, innovation in organizational methods, and innovation in evaluation methods. First of all, research method innovation is the fundamental factor affecting high-quality production. We must correctly handle the dialectical relationship between basic theoretical research and countermeasure research. In particular, we must vigorously promote the innovation of theoretical discourse system and the innovation of research methodology, based on the frontiers of theoretical and practical development, and actively construct a research paradigm of new think tanks with Chinese characteristics. Second, organizational methods innovation is a key factor affecting high quality production. We must further deepen the innovation of scientific research organization and management methods, and optimize the way of the allocation of resources, in a more flexible and efficient form, to realize the effective matching of people, money and things, strengthen the quality management of production processes. Third, Innovation in evaluation methods is a “baton” that affects high-quality production. Adhering to the principle of high-end and high quality, we must innovate the evaluation index system and methods, and strive to form a good atmosphere for survival of the fittest.

(The author is a doctor of management in the Policy Research Office of Shandong Academy of Social Sciences.)