Do Chinese "Think Tanks" exist? Decision making in China.

In all modern governments there are advisers and close colleagues who help the leader try and determine what is best for the country. In the United States the President has his cabinet. In Iran there is the Guardian Council. In China, there is the Politburo. These groups can exert massive influence on the lives of people throughout their respective nations. This is especially true in China. But how is it that China is able to determine this information, especially in such a secretive and highly centralized state? Last month the Central Party School in Beijing released a journal called Internal Reference of Ideology and Theory. According to an article by the Economist (http://www.economist.com/blogs/analects/2014/03/chinese-politics) this highly secret report is handed out to the Politburo members and is used to determine what policy the CCP wants to enact. This leads us to the idea of think tanks. A think tank (or policy institute, research institute, etc.) is an organization that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. These think tanks can be independent of the government, or done within. China has this done from within the CCP. However, the idea of an independent think tank is not appealing to China because it takes away from their control. As a result the Internal Reference of Ideology and Theory is done through the CCP. This creates a clear issue. In a country where the government often does much in secret and dissenters mysteriously disappear, the people who write the journal often tell President Xi Jinping exactly what he wants to hear. This confuses the already confusing system of decision making. It becomes increasingly hard to distinguish what is fact and what is fiction in China. So once again this puts all decision making on the members of the Politburo who have to decide whether or not to change policy based on what they feel is appropriate, not necessarily based on what China needs. The Economist puts it perfectly, saying "The biggest danger of this emperor-adviser relationship is that it rewards advisers who tell the emperor what they already think, and punishes (or at least fails to reward) radical thinking". As a result China may continue to evolve slowly and react to change in a less timely manner. As the world changes around China, the CCP may not be able to keep up. The lack of think tanks also serve to undermine Chinese civil liberties and provides little hope for change in China. So just as we thought the CCP is still in control.