Cheng Li

Cheng Li (, born 1956 ) is a Chinese-American scholar specializing in Chinese elite politics and contemporary Chinese society; he served as the director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution from 2014 to 2023, replacing Kenneth Lieberthal in the role. He is currently professor of political science and founding director of the Centre on Contemporary China and the World (CCCW) at the University of Hong Kong. Li is a prominent authority on Chinese politics, specifically leadership dynamics and the changes in leaders over generations.

Early life and education

Li grew up in the city of Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution, and was at one point a barefoot doctor in his community. He graduated from East China Normal University with a B.A. in English literature. In 1985, he came to the United States for graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where Li studied under Robert Scalapino, and was mentored by A. Doak Barnett. He later received an M.A. (1989) and a Ph.D. (1992) in political science from Princeton University.

Li has written notably about the rise of "technocrats" in Chinese leadership circles. A portion of his research is informed by a large databank he had accumulated about Chinese leaders and their relations with one another.

Li has advised a wide range of government, business and non-profit organizations on working in China. He is a director of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, a member of the Academic Advisory Group of the Congressional U.S.-China Working Group, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a director of the Committee of 100. Before joining Brookings in 2006, he was the William R. Kenan professor of government at Hamilton College, where he had taught since 1991.

Affiliations 21st Century International Review, member, editorial board Asia Policy, member, editorial board China Leadership Monitor, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, columnist China's Rising Leaders Project, National Bureau of Asian Research, co-chair, advisory committee Committee of 100, member and co-chair, issue committee Council on Foreign Relations, member Institute of Current World Affairs, trustee Journal of Public Management, member, editorial board National Committee on United States-China Relations, member, board of directors The China Report, India, member, editorial board

Publications Thornton Center Chinese Thinkers Series, principal editor (ongoing) Middle Class Shanghai Reshaping U.S.-China Engagement (2021) The Power of Ideas: The Rising Influence of Thinkers and Think Tanks in China (2017) Chinese Politics in the Xi Jinping Era: Reassessing Collective Leadership (2016) China's Political Development: Chinese and American Perspectives (2014, co-author) The Political Mapping of China’s Tobacco Industry and Anti-Smoking Campaign (2012) The Road to Zhongnanhai: High-Level Leadership Groups on the Eve of the 18th Party Congress (in Chinese, 2012) China's Emerging Middle Class: Beyond Economic Transformation (2010, ed.) China's Changing Political Landscape: Prospects for Democracy (2008) Bridging Minds Across the Pacific: The Sino-U.S. Educational Exchange 1978-2003 (2005) China's Leaders: The New Generation (2001) Rediscovering China: Dynamics and Dilemmas of Reform (1997)