Area and states studies aim at comprehensive practice in research fields such as politics, the economy, security, society, culture, and foreign relations in specific countries and regions, and also offer important intellectual support for China’s construction of the Belt and Road initiative. China’s area and states studies benefit from the policy needs of its growing global political, economic, and cultural influence, but they should have different concepts and practices from those of their Western counterparts. They should build a multi-disciplinary, multi-field, and multi-institutional research system with Chinese characteristics that is based on the distinctive features of the topics and serves the modernization of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the actual needs of Belt and Road construction.