WANG Feng Named Senior Fellow and Director of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center in Beijing

WANG Feng, one of the world’s leading experts on demographic and social change in China, has joined the Brookings Institution as senior fellow and director of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy in Beijing, China, Brookings President Strobe Talbott announced today.

“We are delighted to have Dr. Wang as a member of the Brookings team and look forward to his leadership of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center,” said Talbott. “As a global think tank we are committed to bringing expertise, balance and diverse viewpoints to the public policy discussion. His work will enhance the center’s capabilities as a platform for research on China and U.S.-China relations.”

Wang will join the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. He was previously chair of the Sociology Department at the University of California, Irvine. He is one of the foremost scholars of contemporary Chinese society, with much of his recent research focusing on the massive demographic and social transformations that have accompanied China’s rapid economic development. His work has touched on some of the most challenging and important issues China now faces, particularly the social, economic and political ramifications of the country’s declining fertility rates in conjunction with its three-decades long one child policy.

“I am very pleased that Dr. Wang has agreed to serve as the director of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center,” said Kenneth Lieberthal, senior fellow and director of the John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings. “His outstanding research skills and excellent reputation in both the United States and China bode exceptionally well for the center’s growth and impact.”

“Dr. Wang is considered a leading thinker in the Chinese academic community. I am confident that the Brookings-Tsinghua Center will benefit greatly from Dr. Wang’s cutting-edge research and his innovative approaches to examining China’s social and economic landscape,” said Lan Xue, dean and professor at the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China and a nonresident senior fellow with the John L. Thornton China Center.

Wang was born in China and went on to build a successful academic career in the United States. He has been at the University of California, Irvine since 1996. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Hebei University in China and holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in sociology from the University of Michigan. Over the years, his in-depth field research on China has been published extensively in both English and Chinese.

The Brookings-Tsinghua Center is a partnership between the Brookings Institution and Tsinghua University. Established in Beijing in 2006, the center serves as a platform for American and Chinese scholars to provide analysis and to discuss China’s development and the U.S.-China relationship.