Professor Chunlai Chen is an applied economist in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. He got BSc. from Beijing Forestry University (China), MPA from Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University (USA), and PhD from the University of Adelaide (Australia). He worked in Rural Development Institute of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences for more than ten years before coming to Australia. He is an expert in foreign direct investment, international trade, agricultural economics, and rural development with an emphasis on China’s economy. He has conducted systematic and comprehensive studies on foreign direct investment and its impact on China’s economy. He has also conducted extensive research on China’s agricultural production, marketing, trade policy and liberalisation, and rural development. He is leading a research project funded by Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research on rural regional transformation in Bangladesh, China, Indonesia and Pakistan, which will have important policy impacts on rural development in Asian developing economies.