Having first visited Beijing as a language student in 1984, Shaun has spent much of the subsequent three decades studying contemporary Chinese politics. His initial interests resulted in books on Mao Zedong, and centre-province relations in the first decade of reform. Latterly, his focus has turned to the way in which the state manages the market, how Chinese conceptions of China’s place in the world influence its international interactions, and how these domestic and international issues interact and impact on each other. Shaun also has a side interest in comparative theories of regional integration, and has just finished running a major 16 partner EU funded four-year project on global reordering (and Europe’s place within it).