CUC rolls out new platform to craft China’s indigenous narrative on South Asian studies

The Academy of International and Regional Communication Studies (AIRCS) at the Communication University of China hosted its first Sihai Release platform alongside an academic seminar centered on China’s indigenous narrative for South Asian research on July 17.

The forum gathered experts from governmental bodies, think tanks, universities and media. Participants exchanged views on developing an indigenous knowledge system for regional and country studies with Chinese perspectives and advancing targeted international communication on South Asia.

A new report analyzing regional trends across South Asia in the first half of 2026 was also unveiled at the event.

CUC Vice-President Chai Jianping remarked that the AIRCS functions as a national-level think tank delivering demand-led research anchored in three standards: practical issues, rigorous analysis and implementable findings.

The institute’s publication platform “Global Civilizations Insights” produces original reports under the principle of “expressing ideas, conveying voices, and fostering connection”, and bolsters the construction of a unified indigenous knowledge framework for regional and country studies, with the aim of generating credible research, amplifying Chinese voices and facilitating cross-cultural integration.

A research team led by an associate professor Zhang Xiaoyu of the Center for South Asian Communication Studies at AIRCS released the think tank report From Turmoil to Stability: The South Asian Landscape in H1 2026.

Grounded in a Chinese analytical framework and attentive to the core national interests of South Asian states, the report charts the region’s shift from pronounced political and socioeconomic volatility toward nascent stability during the first half of 2026.

The report also identifies key structural and strategic variables likely to shape its trajectory in the second half of the year. Drawing on rigorous field research and robust quantitative analysis, the report challenges the reductive binary narratives prevalent among Western think tanks — which tend to portray South Asia either as perpetually unstable or as experiencing exaggerated economic growth — by offering a nuanced, multi-dimensional analytical framework for an objective assessment of regional dynamics.

In thematic discussions, scholars deliberated on China’s South Asia research discourse, indigenous knowledge construction and cross-border communication. Huang Rihan, the director of the Maritime Silk Road Institute at Huaqiao University, emphasized fieldwork studies as the foundation of such knowledge systems and advocated multilingual overseas social media channels to disseminate academic findings. Mao Weizhun, the deputy director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Development Studies at Nanjing University, put forward four evaluation metrics for indigenous research frameworks and drew on the Belt and Road Initiative’s pivot toward small, high-impact projects to expand regional communication research approaches. Wang Zhaodong, an associate professor at the Renmin University of China’s School of International Studies, stressed the need to balance three pairs of research priorities: local context versus Chinese relevance, country-specific studies versus thematic research, and quantitative versus qualitative approaches, while attaching greater importance to original field research.

Industry professionals from China Media Group, China Daily, Global Times and Journal of World Affairs shared practical operational experience, covering sustained media cooperation between China and South Asian nations, fact-based opinion communication, localized outreach for South Asian audiences and journal content planning based on China’s perspective.

Rong Ying, former vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies and chair professor at Sichuan University, delivered commentary remarks, arguing that China’s regional and country studies should transcend Western-centric narratives and pioneer empathetic, mutually beneficial communication models to advance the vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity.

Ai Ping, the vice-president of the Chinese Association for International Understanding and a former deputy minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, stated in his concluding remarks that by pioneering the publication of systematic think tank reports on South Asian studies, the CUC has established a distinctive approach characterized by “enriching knowledge through practice and constructing a comprehensive framework through the integration of theory and application”.

Li Yiqian contributed to this story.