Dr. Yao Qinhua serves as former Director of the Institute of China Studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. He received his Ph.D. from East China Normal University and has focused his teaching and research in the field of international politics, European integration and Europe-Asia relations. Dr. Yao is the author of Constructing the Collective Identity of the European Union (1951-1995) (SASS Publishing House, 2003) and is the co-editor of Theoretical Frontiers of International Political Economy,China’s International Status Report, China’s Socio-economic Transition: Theory and Empirical Research, etc. Some of his publications appear in prestigious Chinese journals such as Social Sciences, International Economics and Politics, Contemporary International Relations, World Ethno-national Studies, Russian, East European & Central Asian Studies and Historical Review. In recognition of his research excellence, Dr. Yao has received several awards from the Shanghai Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Sciences. He was a visiting scholar at Vienna University, Austria in 2001, sponsored by the China-EU Higher Education Cooperation Programme, and has been actively involved in international academic exchange since then.