Prof. Baldauf was one of the first who saw the planning agency as a central issue in examining the effectiveness of language planning (LP) endeavors (e.g. Baldauf, R. B. Jr. (1982). "The language situation in American Samoa: Planners, plans and planning." "Language Planning Newsletter," 1(8), 1-6). This paper chooses the language academy (LA) as a representation of language agency and examines its role in Chinese LP in modern history. China does not have an LA in the sense the term is used elsewhere in the world as Kaplan and Baldauf [(1997). "Language planning from practice to theory." Clevedon: "Multilingual Matters"] describe. However, a constellation of official or semi-official LP organizations of various LA formats related to Chinese LP has existed through a century of the Chinese language modernization movement. This paper evaluates the efforts of these organizations with a focus on the interaction between the LP activities, the LP agency and socio-political conditions. We argue that the socio-political landscape as an enabler for LP in China has seen phenomenal changes as a result of the economic development and technological advancement in recent decades; the societal behavior of the people as the targeted recipients of LP goods has been increasingly governed by a postmodernist mentality. In this context, this paper concludes that a national LA would enhance the effectiveness of future LP ventures in the Chinese context.