Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

(Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan)

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) was founded in 1977 in Beijing and grew out of the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Zhongguo kexueyuan zhexue shehui kexue xuebu). CASS is the nation’s highest academic research organization in the social sciences and humanities, and is administered and sponsored by the government. From 1977 to 2002, CASS expanded from the fourteen research institutes within the former Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences to thirty-one institutes and more than fifty research centres. As of May 2001, there were 3,767 staff members, of whom 2,975 were professional researchers.

CASS’s library, or the Centre for Documentation and Information, has China’s largest collection in the humanities and social sciences, consisting of some 5,500,000 volumes, including a considerable number of rare books. The collection increases by over 100,000 volumes each year. CASS established a Graduate School in 1978, which offers doctoral and master’s degrees in the humanities and social sciences. Directly affiliated with CASS are three publishing agencies: China Social Science Publishing House, Editorial Office of Social Sciences in China, and the Social Sciences Documentation Publishing House.

CASS plays an instrumental role in the theoretical, and many of its research results are taken into consideration in the formation of government policy. It carries out research projects sponsored by the National Social Sciences Fund and actively conducts research projects assigned by the Central Committee of the CCP and by government departments.

QIU PEIPEI