| Cheng Li | |
| Native Name: | 李成 |
| Birth Place: | Shanghai, China |
| Other Names: | Li Cheng |
| Alma Mater: | East China Normal University University of California, Berkeley Princeton University |
| Known For: | Analysis of leadership politics of the People's Republic of China |
| Occupation: | Scholar |
Cheng Li is a Chinese-American scholar specializing in Chinese elite politics and contemporary Chinese society; he has 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.[1] 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. [2] Li is a prominent authority on Chinese politics, specifically leadership dynamics and the changes in leaders over generations.
Li grew up in the city of Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution, and was at one point a barefoot doctor in his community. He is a graduate of East China Normal University.[3] In 1985, he came to the United States for graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He later received a Ph.D. from Princeton University.
At University of California, Berkeley, Li studied under the well-known scholar Robert Scalapino, and was mentored by the veteran China watcher A. Doak Barnett.
From 1993 to 1995, he worked in China as a fellow with the U.S.-based Institute of Current World Affairs, observing grassroots changes in his native country. Based on this experience, he published a nationally acclaimed book, Rediscovering China: Dynamics and Dilemmas of Reform (1997).[4]
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.[5]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.[4]
Li has been a recipient of fellowships or research grants from the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Freeman Foundation, the Peter Lewis Foundation, the Crane-Rogers Foundation, the Emerson Foundation, the United States Institute of Peace, Hong Kong Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange. From 2002 to 2003, he was a residential fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.[4]
He is frequently called on to share his unique perspective and insights as an expert on China. He has recently appeared on CNN, C-SPAN, BBC, ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, PBS NewsHour, Charlie Rose, Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria and NPR's Diane Rehm Show. He has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time magazine, The Economist, Newsweek, Business Week, Foreign Policy magazine and numerous other publications. Li is also a columnist for the Stanford University journal China Leadership Monitor. He is a regular speaker and participant at the Bilderberg Conference.[4]
Li is also the author or the editor of numerous books, including
He is the principal editor of the Thornton Center Chinese Thinkers Series published by the Brookings Institution Press.[4]