The Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries is a national people’s organization engaged in people-to-people diplomacy of the People’s Republic of China. The aims of the association are to enhance people’s friendship, further international cooperation, safeguard world peace and promote common development. It was founded on May 3, 1954 and has set up multiple offices in all Chinese provinces and regions. The association established relationships of friendly cooperation with nearly 500 nongovernment organizations and institutions in 157 countries.

The Center for China and Globalization (CCG) is one of the leading Chinese think tanks. CCG was established in 2008 and employs near 100 in-house researchers, which focus amongst many other issues on China’s growing role in the world, global trade and investment, global migration, international relations and other topics pertaining to regional and global development. CCG organizes high-level conferences, expert discussions with leaders from politics and business and prepares studies and reports on a regular basis.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, founded in 1977, is the most important academic institution in China pursuing research activities in philosophy and social science. At the same time, it functions as one of the national study centres of the People's Republic of China. One of the most important tasks of the Academy is to promote social science, in which context particular attention is paid to basic research. In pursuit of another of its duties, international academic exchange, CASS today maintains links with more than 200 social-science research institutions in more than 100 countries of the world. It publishes a number of scientific journals, some of which are very widely known, including 'Social Sciences in China', 'Historical Research', 'Economic Research Journal', and 'Journal of Law'. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is one of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation's most important partners in the People's Republic of China. Cooperation with the Academy began in 1996.

The Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs was celebrating its 50th anniversary as early as 1999. It was established at the suggestion of the former prime minister Zhou Enlai, who was foreign secretary at the time. The CPIFA aims to promote personal contacts with multipliers from various countries in the world. To this end, the Institute each year invites a number of high-ranking visitors, generates studies on international politics, and organises events of the most varied kind. In addition, the CPIFA nominates delegations to visit foreign countries. Furthermore, it publishes the 'Foreign Affairs Journal' quarterly. Most prominent among the themes of co-operation between the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the CPIFA are issues of foreign and security policy, another joint concern being the promotion of young foreign-policy experts.

Founded in 1956, the Chinese Institute of International Studies (CIIS) is an academic institution that is subordinated to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. It conducts its own research projects which mainly focus on strategic issues relating to international politics and the global economy. In addition, the Institute promotes academic exchange programmes with foreign countries. The CISS comprises seven research divisions dealing with the different regions of the world. It employs a workforce of about 100, including many diplomats either retired or on leave.

Grandview Institution was established in 2013 and maintains a network of more than a hundred scholars, government officials, journalists and business leaders from China, which provide the central government as well as the private sector and local governments with policy recommendations by producing research projects, analyses and periodicals. Focus themes of Grandview Institution’s activities are the Belt and Road Initiative, Sino-US and Sino-European relations, global maritime governance, international law of military operations on the sea and developments on the Korean peninsula, Russia and Central Asia.

The China Center for International Ecomomic Exchanges (CCIEE) is one of the most important Chinese think tanks specialized on economic issues. CCIEE provides the Chinese government with analyses and policy recommendations in the area of economic policy. Focus topics of its research are global economy, trade, finance and investment as well as macroeconomic strategies, industrial development, structural adjustments and institutional reform.

The Chinese Institute of International Strategic Studies is an academic non-governmental organisation. Its remit includes the preparation of studies dealing with international strategic issues, global security, geopolitics, the global economy, and regional development. Furthermore, the CIISS endeavours to promote academic exchanges with research institutes and scientific institutions both at home and abroad. It advises members of the Chinese government as well as the military and individual enterprises. Founded in October 1979, the Institute currently employs 30 full-time and more than 100 part-time scientific staff. The CIISS publishes a quarterly journal entitled 'International Strategic Studies'.

The Shanghai University of International Business and Economics (SUIBE) is the main partner of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) in Shanghai. SUIBE (formerly known as Shanghai Insitute of Foreign Trade) was upgradet to the rank of a University in June 2013 and is the sole institution of higher learning in East China specializing in the education and the study of foreign trade and economic relations. SUIBE has maintained close long-term relationships with business circles both at home and abroad. SUIBE enjoys a high prestige both at home and abroad for its leading role in WTO research and keeps close contact with the WTO headquarters in Geneva. WTO Shanghai Research Center and the Society of WTO Research and Development are two specialized research institutions affiliated to SUIBE. In April 2002, a new school - the School of WTO Research & Education - was established at SUIBE with the functions of Graduate Program, Senior Executive Training Program etc., aiming at developing the senior talents in the areas of multilateral foreign economic affairs. KAS and SUIBE cooperate mainly in the field of WTO-studies. Since December 2001 both sides hold yearly the high-level international “SIFT-KAS WTO-Forum”.

Fudan University was founded in 1905 in Shanghai, and now is one of the leading universities in China with a long history and an international reputation for academic excellence. Fudan University is composed of 17 schools offering a complete range of majors and disciplines. The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) works closely together with the university, especially the School of Journalism. They jointly held conferences on cultural issues. In March 2004 both sides established an academic platform under the name of "Fudan-KAS Forum".

Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS), a leading think-tank and distinguished academic institution, established in 1958, is China’s largest and oldest research institute for the humanities and social sciences at the provincial level. SASS is under the administration of Shanghai Municipal Government. SASS currently has 700 employees, of which about 500 are research staff. Currently, SASS has 15 institutes and over ten interdisciplinary research centres which conduct theoretical research and applied studies, with a special focus on important issues arising from China’s social and economic reform and opening up to the outside world.

The Modern Management Center, established in October 1995 in Shanghai, is a policy-oriented research institution affiliated to the Shanghai People's Municipality. The institute, through its research, consultancy, training and information activities on economic, enterprise and public affairs management, aims at serving the exploration and establishment of a new Chinese management standard, and the promotion of a balanced social, economic and cultural development in China. In pursuance of "openness to the outside world", the Center strives to establish close relations with foreign and ethnic Chinese management research institutions and to actively promote international exchanges and cooperation in the field of modern management study.

The Nanjing University arose from the Pedagogic School Sanjiang, which was founded in 1902, and exists in its current form since 1952. The Nanjing University belongs to the leading universities in China and belongs to the circle of universities that was chosen by the Chinese government to be a core area university, which is directly responsible to the Chinese Ministry of Education. It is one of the preferred cooperation partners for western universities. Currently the university has 30,000 registered students. The juristic faculty, re-established in 1981, stands for a high scientific level. At the moment the faculty has 2000 students and 24 professors and associate professors and offers a wide range of bachelor, master and PhD degrees. Besides the German-Chinese Institute for Legal science, the Institute for Asian-Pacific-Law, the criminological Institute and the Institute for Real Estate Law are attached to the juristic faculty. The German-Chinese Institute of Legal Sciences was founded as a common initiative of the universities of Göttingen and Nanjing in 1989. Through the cooperation in education, research and juristic practice, a dialogue between the legal cultures of the two nations are advocated. At the beginning the work was concentrated on private and economic law, but a few years ago the institute began to carry out research in the field of public law, too. The institute has the biggest collection of German books on law in the People’s Republic of China. The directors are Prof. Dr. Peter-Tobias Stoll (Göttingen) and Prof. Dr. Shao Jiandong (Nanjing). Chinese vice director is former KAS scholarship holder Prof. Dr. Fang Xiaomin.

The Chinese-German Management Institute (CGMI) is a business training and research as well as consultation institution founded in 1992 by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and North West University Xi'an. The institute organizes domestic and international conferences, realizes research projects and holds training seminars on the topic of modern enterprise systems and the development of business enterprises. The institute also offers corporate designing and consultation services to business entities.

The Tongji University is one of the most renowned universities in China. Its precursor is the German Medical and Engineering School for Chinese that was founded by the German doctor Dr. Erich Paulun in 1907. Given that the Chinese students had no knowledge of the German language which was essential for the studies, the school organised language courses prior to the studies. Since the 1950’s the university is named “Tongji”. The name Tung-Chi that the school had gotten after extending it’s programmes to technical studies in 1912, is derived from the Chinese phrase tong zhou gong ji (to be in the same boat and help each other).

In 1922 the Shanghai University was founded for the first time and has been re-established in 1994 as a public university. Since 2003 the university holds its own department for media research and journalism that is currently cooperating with the KAS office in Shanghai. The institute for media research that is divided into the research institutes of media policy and economic studies, international communication, Asian cinema and television, advertisement, television culture, art and communication, digital movies and journalism, is known as the most important research centre of the whole faculty and as an important contact for media issues beyond scientific studies as well.

DUSA European Association Suzhou is developed from DUSA, abbreviation for German Association Suzhou, which was founded in November of 2002 by Thomas W. Scholz (Laerdal Medical (Suzhou) Co., Ltd.) & Mr. Helmut Schmidtke (SCHOTTEL (Suzhou) Propulsion Co., Ltd.) and some other founders of German companies in Suzhou. DUSA European Association Suzhou provides a forum for Companies, of whatever nationality, with European business interests to meet. Their executives and other individual business people, can come together in regular meetings to identify, examine and discuss matters of common interest affecting economic, industrial, commercial and social objectives of its members. Under the effort of all members, DUSA has become a well-known institution in Suzhou, especially with its public events such as Summer Party and October Beer Festival. Now DUSA has 82 company members, which mainly based in Suzhou, and total up to 365 individual members.