Institute for Contemporary China Studies, Tsinghua University (ICCS) was founded in December, 2011, based on its predecessor, Chinese Academy of Sciences–Tsinghua Center for China Studies (CCS) founded in January, 2000. As a university-level research institute, the operation of ICCS is under the School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, and the Director and chief expert is Prof. Hu Angang, a renowned expert in contemporary China studies. In the past years, ICCS has evolved into a research platform for contemporary China studies and a high-level university think tank with significant academic, social and international influence. In 2015, it was selected to be among the national first batch of 25 organizations as one experimental unit for the National Top Think-tanks.

Since its foundation, ICCS has been upholding the philosophy of “evolving with China’s development, opening up, transformation and prosperity” and the principle of “safeguarding important national interest, identifying long-term national development goals and actively influencing national macro policy-making”. It is fulfilling the mission of “developing into China’s first-class policy-making think tank and the world’s first-class base for contemporary China studies” by following the path of “obtaining, innovating and disseminating policy-making knowledge and influencing policy-making and policies through Reports on Contemporary China”,ICCS grasps the direction of China studies in terms of major conflicts and relations, and integrates innovative methodologies by following the principle of original, pioneering and authoritative in knowledge branding to contribute to national decision-making, theoretical innovation and talent training. It has developed into a think tank for national top-level decision making and a public policy research institute with profound international and domestic influence.

ICCS has provided consultancy for a multiple number of major national decisions, and many research findings were taken. Reports on Contemporary China has become an important reference for decision-making on central and local government level; ICCS has cultivated a large number of outstanding graduates, continuously delivering fresh blood for CPC and governmental authorities, enterprises, and especially those universities and research institutes for China academic innovation and development of China’s school of thought; it actively builts talks with the rest of the world to create a louder Chinese voice on the international stage through international academic communication, publication of research findings and promotion of mainstream medias.

In the future, the Institute for Contemporary China Studies will stay with its principle of "knowledge-for-the-people, knowledge-for-the-nation", making greater contributions to the modernization of state governance system and governance capacities, development of new-type think-tanks with Chinese characteristics, evolution of Marxist philosophy and social science, prosperity of contemporary China studies and China School, and innovation of academic studies, ideas and policies by Tsinghua University and the School of Public Policy and Management.