The Institute for China-Europe Studies (ICES) is a Brussels-based think tank with roots in China’s Hainan province that was founded in 2020 It publishes research, organizes events, and supports academic exchanges on China-Europe relations. The Institute’s publications cover EU trade defense instruments, critical raw materials, ocean governance, maritime law, and EU-China diplomatic relations. ICES organises webinars, roundtables, and an annual conference. It has also co-hosted events with international organizations such as the Washington-based Institute China-America Studies (ICAS) and the Carter Center. The Institute for China-Europe Studies was created by the Hainan Nanhai Research Foundation (海南自貿港研究基金會) which is a funding body that supports South China Sea research, training programs, and policy consultation work. That foundation shares both its physical address and its website URL with the National Institute for South China Sea Studies (中國南海研究院), or NISCSS, a government-backed research institute dedicated to advancing China’s position on South China Sea sovereignty disputes and based in Hainan’s capital of Haikou. The director of ICES is Wu Shicun (吳士存), who is also founding president of the above-mentioned NISCSS and a member of the Foreign Ministry’s Foreign Policy Advisory Committee (外交部外交政策咨詢委員會). The institute’s executive director is Yang Li (楊力), a former diplomat in China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition to cooperating with NISCSS for international events, ICES has also partnered with the Beijing Club for International Dialogue (北京對話), which is affiliated with Shanghai’s Guangcha Online (觀察網), a media outlet with private participation that maintains a strongly pro-government and even nationalistic stance. The Beijing Club, launched in September 2014, is represented in registration documents by Jin Zhongwei (金仲伟), the founding editor of Guacha Online and a distinguished research fellow at Fudan University’s China Institute, a think tank led by one of China’s core official strategists on external propaganda, professor Zhang Weiwei (张维为), who led a study session for the CCP Politburo on the top in May 2021.