Joseph Yu-Shek Cheng is Chair Professor of Political Science and Coordinator of the Contemporary China Research Project, City University of Hong Kong. He is the founding editor of the Hong Kong Journal of Social Sciences and The Journal of Comparative Asian Development. He has published widely on the political development in China and Hong Kong, Chinese foreign policy and local government in southern China. He has recently edited volumes on Whither China’s Democracy? - Democratization in China since the Tiananmen Incident; and Guangdong - Challenges in Development and Crisis Management. He was chairman of the Hong Kong Observers, 1980-82; and convener of Power for Democracy, 2002-04.  He has been a Justice of Peace since 1992; and was the founding president of the Asian Studies Association of Hong Kong during 2005-07. In 2006-08, he served as the secretary-general of the Civic Party. He is now involved in the launch of the New School of Democracy.