I am an Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore (NUS), and a recipient of the Presidential Young Professorship.

My research focuses on government–business relations, bureaucracy, governance, and authoritarian politics, with a particular focus on China. My work has been published or is forthcoming in the American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, Journal of Politics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, The China Quarterly, and other journals.

My work has received the Kellogg/Notre Dame Award for Best Comparative Politics Paper from the Midwest Political Science Association and the Gordon White Prize from The China Quarterly.

I earned my PhD in Political Science from Duke University. Prior to Duke, I received my bachelor’s degree from Fudan University and completed my MPhil at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Before joining NUS, I was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Leitner Program in Political Economy at the MacMillan Center, Yale University.

You can reach me at zeren.li@nus.edu.sg.