Cheng Li

Dr. Cheng Li is a professor of political science and founding director of the Centre on Governance of China and the World at the University of Hong Kong. Li’s research areas include the transformation of political leaders, generational change, the Chinese middle class, Chinese think tanks, technological development in China, China’s foreign policy, Sino-U.S. relations, and global governance.  

Prior to joining HKU, Li served as director and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s John L. Thornton China Center. He currently also serves as director of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, a scholar-in-residence in the Asia Society Hong Kong, a non-resident fellow at Yale University’s Paul Tsai China Center, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  

Li is the author/editor of 18 books, including Chinese Politics in the Xi Jinping Era: Reassessing Collective Leadership (2016), The Power of Ideas: The Rising Influence of Thinkers and Think Tanks in China (2017), Middle Class Shanghai: Reshaping U.S.-China Engagement (2021), and Sino-U.S. relations: Searching for the Convergence of Interests in a Changing World (in Chinese, 2024). He is working on a new book project, Xi Jinping’s Protégés: Rising Elite Groups in the Chinese Leadership. Li received an M.A. in Asian Studies from the University of California at Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Princeton University. 

Updated July 2025