I am a postdoctoral fellow jointly at Peking University and Princeton University. I received my Ph.D. in Political Science at Emory University in 2022. My research focuses on information politics and state-society relationships in autocracies, with regional expertise in China. Starting in Fall 2024, I will join University College London as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Political Science.

Across various projects, I examine the causes and consequences of transparency and information manipulation. I also study contentious politics and the political economy of development. Methodologically, my research employs formal modeling and statistical methods for causal inference that utilize observational data and experiments. I have conducted field surveys and interviews with underprivileged people in China.

My book project investigates China’s transparency initiative for government policy and behavior and its role in the governance game between the central government, local governments, and citizens. It discusses the hopes and limitations of transparency in shaping the citizen-government relationship in an authoritarian country.

Get in touch with me at: handi.li[at]ucl.ac.uk