Clarification for the Report of NRC News
August 23 , 2022Hello editor,
On behalf of the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), I’m reaching out to you regarding your recent report “Chinese analisten: Taiwan binnenvallen is te riskant voor Xi Jinping” published on Aug. 14 at nrc.nl.
（https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2022/08/14/china-is-voorlopig-niet-uit-op-een-invasie-van-taiwan-a4138926）.
There is a serious misperception in this article about CCG’s status. We have approached the author, Ms. Carrie Van Pinxteren, to clarify on this matter. We are advised by her to send this letter to the editorial room to make our side of the story heard.
In the 6th and 7th paragraphs of this article, the author included his/her own assumption that CCG, a non-governmental think tank founded by Dr. Huiyao Wang, “probably has close ties to the United Front,” an organization under the CPC that “aims to influence people around”. And the author went on to say Dr. Wang is using his competencies and activities to fulfill this task.
This assumption based on no proof or source is not true. The author didn’t verify with us as agreed before publishing this article. We have approached the author with this faulty statement. And, we want to clarify with you that CCG is a non-governmental organization specialized in globalization issues, that’s NOT affiliated with any political parties or governmental agencies.
CCG is a registered non-governmental organization that has been granted the official special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC) in 2018, a status only for NGOs. (List of non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council as of 1 September 2018: note / by the Secretary-General https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/1657187?ln=en (page 27)
In the “2020 Global Go To Think Tank Index” by the University of Pennsylvania Think Tank and Civil Society Program (TTCSP), CCG was ranked the 37th of the 50 best independent think tanks around the world. (https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=think_tanks page 332)
As far as we know, the misperception about CCG’s status might come from incorrect and one-sided information based on unverified source posted on CCG’s Wikipedia page that has been deliberately targeted and arbitrarily edited. The misperception mainly arises from a single fact that CCG Founding President Dr. Huiyao Wang used to be the Vice Chairman of China Western Returned Scholars Association. However, this organization, founded in 1913, much earlier than CCP, is not equal to the United Front or CCP. In addition, Dr. Wang is no longer taking any position in this organization.
In the past decade, as a non-governmental think tank, CCG has cooperated and exchanged with the world’s leading think tanks including AEI, the Brookings, CATO, Heritage Foundation, Hudson Institute, and CSIS, and participated in a great number of high-level international conferences. Through years, we had pleasure hosting, visiting, and meeting with a lot of prestigious scholars and experts and policymakers from around the world. We also regularly held symposiums, seminars, dialogues, roundtables, and forums both online and offline with the organizations including foreign chambers of commerce, industrial groups, education institutions, foreign embassies, and UN institutions. As a non-governmental think tank, CCG has become an effective channel and platform to enable exchange of the ideas and foster cooperation among policymakers, experts, scholars, and industry leaders in China and abroad. More information about CCG can be found at our official website http://en.ccg.org.cn/ .
We would like to request correction or removal of this misassumption in a timely way. We would also like to help if you are interested in learning about CCG’s history and activities and develop a more balanced story using appropriately acquired and verified information.
Again, we appreciate your attention to CCG’s work. We are here ready to help anytime and would welcome you to visit our Beijing headquarters in the future. Please feel free to contact.
Yours sincerely,
Communications & Media Relations Department
Center for China and Globalization
