Prof Li is an Associate Professor at the Centre for China Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He is also a Research Fellow (by courtesy) at CUHK’s Lau Chor Tak Institute of Global Economics and Finance (IGEF). He has researched, written and taught on a wide range of issues in China’s political economy, development strategy, public policy, institutional reforms and business environment in the global context, such as China’s SOE reform, financial regulatory reform, government-business relations and industrial & regional development policies. He received his PhD and MPhil in development studies from the University of Cambridge and dual bachelor degrees of law and economics from Peking University. He has been frequently interviewed by international and local media, with views quoted by Fortune, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Lianhe Zaobao (Singapore) and South China Morning Post, among others. He also regularly contributes opinion pieces to China Daily.

During the Luncheon, Prof. Li focused on China’s economic reform. He analysed that China’s economic policies have been heavily influenced by Japan and South Korea. The rational industrial policies designed and implemented by elite bureaucracy, and the coordinated economic development between large business groups and the government are adapted into China’s own industrial policies. Through the SOEs reforms in late 1990s, local governments were granted greater autonomy to restructure their own firms, and loss-making small-and-medium-sized SOEs and urban collective firms were sold off or shut down. At the same time, more resources were given to profit-making large SOEs.

The reform policies were undoubtedly successful. In 2009, only a total of 43 Mainland Chinese firms were listed in the Fortune Global 500, among which 38 were central-state controlled business groups/financial institutions. By 2018, the number of Mainland Chinese firms in the Fortune Global 500 had increased to 107. Among them, 58 were central-state controlled business groups/financial institutions. Through years of planning, China’s state economy was able to restructure itself within an evolving framework of public ownership, market competition and industrial policies, maintaining its status and identity as a pillar of China’s hybrid economic system.