The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is the highest academic institution and a comprehensive research center for the social sciences in China. The Academy has more than 30 research institutes and some research centers. It has a galaxy of experts and scholars specializing in various fields, and some 4,000 research, editing and translation personnel, of whom nearly 200 are tutors of doctoral candidates.

In recent years, local research institutions in the social sciences have expanded their activities considerably. Research institutions in the social sciences of different sizes have been established in various provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

The various departments of the social sciences and the humanities in the institutions of higher learning are important research bases for the social sciences in China. They employ more than 60,000 teachers, of whom many do research work in addition to teaching. Besides, there are many special research institutes attached to the institutions of higher learning. There are about 130 institutes concerned with the social sciences in China, employing more than 4,000 professional researchers.

Furthermore, the governmental departments at various levels, Party schools, military colleges and universities, cadre schools, enterprises and institutions also have some smaller-scale social science research organizations and personnel, a by no means negligible research force.

Centering on the establishment of socialist theory and a socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics, Chinese social science workers have conducted research in depth, proceeding from combining theory with practice, and attained many useful achievements. Breakthroughs have been made in forecasts of the national economy and social development, and suggestions have been put forward for solving the theoretical and practical problems in the building of democracy and the legal system. Prominent achievements have been made in basic research, and a batch of treatises of a high academic level have been published.