Key experts
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Kerry Brown
Team Leader
Kerry is Team Leader of ECRAN. Educated at Cambridge, London and Leeds Universities, he worked in Japan, Australia, and the Inner Mongolian region of China, before joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. He worked in the China Section and then served as First Secretary, Beijing, from 2000 to 2003, and Head of the Indonesia East Timor Section at the FCO from 2003 to 2005. From 2011-2012, he was Head of the Asia Programme at Chatham House and he is currently Director of the China Studies Centre and Professor of Chinese Politics at the University of Sydney.
Kerry’s expertise focuses on Chinese politics and culture, China’s Private Sector and China’s relations with the rest of East Asia.
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Shaun Breslin
Key Expert in Politics
Shaun is ECRAN’s Key Expert in Politics. He is Associate Fellow with the Asia Programme at Chatham House and Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick, where he is also Director of the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation. Shaun has studied at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and Beijing Shifan Daxue (Beijing Normal University) and has over 25 years’ research experience with regard to China.
Shaun’s areas of expertise focus on international political economy, the regionalisation of East Asia, Chinese foreign policy and Chinese domestic politics.
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Lina Song
Key Expert in Society
Lina is ECRAN’s Key Expert in Society. She is Professor of Economic Sociology and Social Policy at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Nottingham, where she has worked since 1999. She has undertaken regular consultancy work and has more than 10 years’ experience providing targeted policy advice to international and national organisations, as well as the Chinese and British governments.
Lina has more than 25 years’ experience researching social issues in China. Her research has included studies on social security, income distribution, labour markets, state-ownership restructuring, and rural industrialisation in China.
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Shujie Yao
Key Expert in Economics
Shujie is ECRAN’s Key Expert in Economics. He heads the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham, where he is also Professor of Economics and Chinese Sustainable Development. He completed his PhD in Economics from the University of Manchester and has since held positions at the Universities of Oxford, Portsmouth and Middlesex.
Shujie’s main fields of research are economic development in China, development and agricultural economics, economic growth, income distribution and poverty, and microeconomics/international business and finance.