In Conversation With… Professors Bingchun Meng and Yijia Jing, Co-Directors of the LSE-Fudan Global Public Policy Hub

Bingchun Meng and Yijia Jing were drawn to global public policy by a shared desire to connect their work with public life. Meng studied Chinese Language and Literature, then Comparative Literature at the Nanjing University in China, before moving to the United States and eventually shifting her studies to mass communication at the Pennsylvania State University, where her research developed a strong policy focus. She is now Professor in the Department for Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Jing’s path was different: “I studied Economics at Peking University, then switched to Sociology at University of Maryland. However, I found both subjects too abstract and far away from real life, so I finally pivoted to a PhD in Public Policy at Ohio State University.” Yijia Jing is now Professor in Public Management at Fudan University.

For Meng, the LSE-Fudan partnership emerged from a prior collaboration. Shortly after joining LSE in 2018, she began directing a Dual-degree Master’s Programme in Global Media and Communications through which students studied and graduated from the London and China based institutions. Jing, on the other hand, returned to Fudan University in 2005 and was quickly appointed programme director of its first English-taught master’s degree, before later moving into wider responsibilities for global affairs as a vice director the university’s Office for Global Partnerships in late 2014: “My job was to deepen and broaden the collaboration between LSE and Fudan so naturally I pushed to establish the new centre and hub.” He adds: “This collaboration has been built patiently over time, through institutional commitment and trusted relationships between colleagues.”

The Global Public Policy Hub was officially launched in 2019. Meng describes it as “both a convening space for China-related policy research and an intellectual incubator for junior scholars”. In practice, that means bringing together LSE researchers whose work focuses on China, offering doctoral students a place to meet peers, and creating a visible base in London for visiting scholars, seminars and wider academic dialogue. It also includes supporting postdoctoral researchers across a wide range of fields: “It’s quite interdisciplinary if we look at the research of our postdocs. In the first three cohorts we have had postdocs conduct research on health policy, social and public policy within China, as well as Chinese development projects in the global south and environmental policy from a comparative perspective. I think the fascinating thing about doing policy relevant research is that you can conduct research at a higher level, looking at policy design, or you can do research on the ground, looking at the policy implementation and the discrepancies.” Meng additionally notes that applications for the Hub’s two postdoctoral positions have risen from 49 in the first round to around 92 in 2024 and 276 last year.

Support from the Huo Family Foundation is helping make that work more tangible. Jing explains: “Fudan postdoctoral researchers will now be able to spend between three and six months at LSE on short-term exchanges, widening access to colleagues, conversations and research opportunities across the two institutions. It’s a great support system.”

At a time when cross-border academic collaboration is harder to sustain, support for these initiatives is more important now than ever. Meng notes: “We feel fortunate that we can make this Chinese-UK collaboration in policy research happen, given the geopolitical context.” The result is a partnership that is not only producing research and supporting scholars, but also holding open a space for exchange, trust and intellectual cooperation across institutions and disciplines.

HFF has committed £1,004,000 over four years to Fudan University to support the academic programmes of the LSE-Fudan Research Centre for Global Public Policy.