William Hurst Keynote Speaker

Chong Hua Professor of Chinese Development, Cambridge (2021– )
Keynote Speaker, Indo-Pacific Roundtable 2025
Author of The Chinese Worker after Socialism & Ruling Before the Law

William Hurst's Biography

William Hurst is the Chong Hua Professor of Chinese Development in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge, where he also co-directs the Centre for Geopolitics, and is a Fellow of Wolfson College. His scholarship weaves comparative politics and international relations, with particular attention to historical and sub-national dynamics to explain macro-level outcomes. Hurst earned a PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley (2005) after undergraduate and masters degrees from the University of Chicago. He previously taught at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Toronto, and Northwestern University, and held fellowships at Oxford and Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study.

Hurst’s research engages core questions in Chinese politics, Indonesian politics, international relations of East and Southeast Asia, and US–China relations. His first book, The Chinese Worker after Socialism (2009), remains a touchstone on labour politics, political economy, and welfare reform, while his second, Ruling Before the Law (2018), offers the first systematic comparison of legal regimes in China and Indonesia. All of his work blends archival, documentary, ethnographic, and sometimes quantitative evidence and analysis. He is now writing a comparative historical investigation of land politics in China, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Malaysia, reframing debates on state formation and development. Alongside his monographs, he has edited four volumes and published dozens of peer-reviewed articles, op-eds, and essays.

Beyond academia, Hurst is a sought-after commentator on foreign policy, international relations, and global political trends. His knowledge of Southeast Asia complements his China expertise, enabling nuanced analysis of regional security, development, and great power politics. He regularly briefs officials, corporate leaders, think tanks, and media outlets, providing grounded insight on subjects ranging from China’s domestic governance to the global implications of subnational, national, and regional events and trends.

China’s domestic governance & policy reform

US–China relations and great-power rivalry

Legal regimes & rule of law in Asia

Labour, land & social change in China and Indonesia

Geopolitical risk across East & Southeast Asia

He brings deep, research-driven authority on China and the Indo-Pacific as Cambridge’s Chong Hua Professor of Chinese Development and co-director of the Centre for Geopolitics, helping leaders understand the forces shaping regional stability and global power.
He equips executives and policymakers with grounded insight into China’s domestic governance and political economy, translating sub-national dynamics and historical drivers into clear implications for strategy and risk.
He offers rare comparative perspective across China and Southeast Asia, connecting development, security and great power competition to the real-world decisions organisations face in a shifting Indo-Pacific order.
He distils complex political and legal systems into accessible frameworks, drawing on influential books including The Chinese Worker after Socialism and Ruling Before the Law to clarify how states manage control, reform and legitimacy.
He delivers decision-ready briefings informed by rigorous multi-method research and regular engagement with officials, corporate leaders and think tanks, enabling audiences to anticipate change and act with confidence in uncertain conditions.