Long-time China scholar in Washington leaves for post at Hong Kong University
- Cheng
Li, formerly of the Brookings Institution, will lead a new think tank
called the Centre on Governance of China and the World
- Li says he hopes to use Hong Kong as a ‘special’ place to promote peace over conflict
Cheng Li will lead a new think tank at the University of Hong Kong. Photo: Brookings Institution
Washington’s China-watching community has lost one of its key fixtures to Hong Kong.
After 17 years, Cheng Li left the Washington-based Brookings Institution this week to head a new research centre at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). His faculty appointment begins on Saturday.
Brookings has yet to officially announce his departure and successor.
Li, 67, had led the think tank’s John L. Thornton China Centre since 2014 and was its longest-tenured director, overseeing its research on Chinese elite politics and contemporary Chinese society. He is known for deciphering the power structure within the Communist Party and for helping foreign audiences understand its complex chain of command.
As director, he didn’t shy away from criticising Beijing’s policies in his public engagements. More recently, he has written about the demise of educational exchange contributing to deteriorating US-China relations. His move comes as US-China relations hit historic lows, with hawkish tones and disputes over Taiwan and communication difficulties becoming the new normal.
In accepting HKU’s invitation to establish the Centre on Governance of China and the World, Li said he was ready to depart Washington, which he felt was becoming increasingly unfamiliar to him.
He said he thought that McCarthyism was returning to America, and that living in the US had become more uncomfortable for Chinese-Americans like him. While giving public talks, Li said he was increasingly asked to clarify which side he was speaking for: “When I say ‘we,’ people ask, what do you mean by ‘we’?”
But he said his departure was more about opportunity than what he was leaving behind, adding that he took pride in being the first Chinese-American to lead China research at one of the US’s most prominent think tanks.
The new centre will focus on finding a “new way for governance”, he said, and will be driven by three dynamics: governance issues in China; what Li calls the anti-globalisation movement; and the US-China relationship.
Governance issues – such as economic slowdowns, environmental degradation and ethnic tensions – have implications for the rest of the world even if studied in the Chinese context, Li said.
The centre launches on Saturday and will report directly to HKU’s president.
He said he hoped to use Hong Kong as a “special” place to promote peace over conflict and to bring together people who cannot gather as easily in Washington. Hong Kong is a “city with subtle but genuine political leverage” and can play a positive role in the US-China relationship, he said.
Li described what he called simplistic rhetoric about China in Washington. “I certainly know China has problems,” he said. “But at the same time, all these things can be exaggerated.”
He acknowledged that he may be swimming against the tide in making the move to Hong Kong but said he was especially drawn to the city for its cosmopolitanism.
And he’s not alone. As Hong Kong seeks to shore up its international relevance amid concerns that political and academic freedom is rapidly being quashed, institutions in the city are increasing their outreach to international scholars – and many have responded.
Despite the exodus of expats, Li believes there are still young people moving to Hong Kong, rattling off the names of elite US and British institutions that have produced some of the early career academics moving to the city. Some old China hands, too, he noted, have stayed despite it all.
“Certainly, there’s political control. There’s no question about that,” he said, referring to the city’s tightened environment after the national security law was imposed in 2020, granting authorities broad powers to crack down on speech and perceived dissent.
But he said it was in Beijing’s best interest not to have Hong Kong become like any other mainland city. “If you think that Beijing wanted to hamper Hong Kong’s success, that’s putting ourselves – meaning Americans – in terrible shape. It is not in Beijing or Washington’s interest to see Hong Kong’s governance system fail or the city’s global financial centre status diminish.”
Saying that Hong Kong is at a “fascinating crossroads”, he urged the US to keep an open mind and not to judge the city prematurely.
But he acknowledged that he was entering unfamiliar terrain – just as when he first came to the US four decades ago.
Asked whether he was concerned that his departure would disrupt efforts to build US-China engagement in Washington, Li said the deeper structural issues in the bilateral relationship were “powerful enough that individual efforts are likely to be overwhelmed in the near future”. For now, he hopes to play a role in making adjustments that will lead to a trajectory shift – a role he says he can do better in Hong Kong.
Among the things he’s looking forward to is a return to the name he was born with.
“When I came to the US, I made the change from ‘Li Cheng’ to ‘Cheng Li’. Now I can go back.”
Published: 1 Jul, 2023