Ahead of China’s 21st Party Congress, a team of researchers at the Centre on Contemporary China and the World (CCCW) at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), led by CCCW Director Li Cheng, examines the personnel changes, generational turnover, and policy signals shaping the next chapter of Chinese governance.

Li Cheng is the Founding Director of CCCW and Professor of Political Science at HKU. He previously served as Brookings Institution’s director of the John L. Thornton China Center for ten years. His research on Chinese elite politics spans over four decades, and has written numerous books on Chinese leadership, including China’s Leaders: The New Generation (2001), The Road to Zhongnanhai (2013, in Chinese), and Chinese Politics in the Xi Jinping Era (2016).