On May 17, 2016, President Xi Jinping chaired a symposium and gave an important speech on efforts to care for, foster and make full use of the many intellectuals in philosophy and social sciences and make them pioneers of advanced innovative thinking.

On 24 May 2016, Professor WANG Yong, the Director of IEAS, attended the learning conference presided by Vice-Chairman Mr Shao Qing (邵清) of Zhejiang Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences Circles (ZJFHSSC）for the study of the aforesaid President Xi Jinping’s speech.

Highlighting the importance of unique role of philosophy and social sciences in building socialism with Chinese characteristics, Professor Wang called on research fellows in philosophy and social sciences to integrate Chinese elements into their researches and teaching activities in order to build new Chinese schools in the philosophical and social sciences fields and play an important role in global academic arena with Chinese characters.  

Calling for innovations in new academic disciplines, Professor Wang advocated daring exploration, energetic and reason-based academic discussions and original researches in various fields such as history, economics, politics, culture, sociology and others. Also, he urged special efforts to foster and assemble researchers well versed in both socialist theories and Chinese and Western cultures, making them think tanks and trailblazers of innovative academic researches, guides of social ethos in China and staunch supporters of central government’s governance.