Think Tank Titles: Representation of China's Scientific Image

Titles play an important role in informing and engaging the audience. For Think Tank (TT) experts, compiling titles is a key strategy for engaging the audience and ensuring relevance in the digital age. As China’s scientific and technological advancements attract growing interest from TTs, it is essential to understand how these titles are constructed. This paper examines 1,800 titles from ten international and Chinese TTs, analyzing variations in the use of quotation marks, high-frequency words, syntactic structure, and content focus. The quantitative analysis reveals that Chinese experts tend to favor simpler, indicative titles, while international TTs commonly use compound formats and interrogative titles when discussing China’s science and technology. The qualitative analysis further underscores the contrasting research goals and linguistic conventions between the two groups. This study provides valuable insights into the rhetorical strategies employed in TT title construction with significant implications for how China’s scientific image is shaped and communicated within elite discourse.