Prof. Ying Xia 夏穎教授
Assistant Professor
Biography
Ying Xia received her S.J.D. from Harvard Law School. Her doctoral thesis examines the socio-legal implications of Chinese investment in African countries. During her study at Harvard, Ying was also awarded the Yong K. Kim ’95 Memorial Prize for her work on the connections between China’s environmental campaign and the international trade in waste. She also received an LL.M. in international law and an LL.B. from Peking University. Ying’s research interest includes environmental law, international law, and law and public policy, with a focus on experience from developing countries.
Ying teaches courses on Chinese law and environmental law. She also serves as the director of the Philip K.H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law and the HKU-PKU Dual Degree Programme in Law.
Publications
“Guerrilla Lawyering: Mobile Resistance in China’s Public Interest Litigation” (2025) Law & Society Review.
“Environmental Advocacy in a Globalizing China: NGOs’ Engagement with the Green Belt and Road Initiative” (2024) 54(4) Journal of Contemporary Asia 667-689.
“State-Sponsored Activism: How China’s Law Reforms Impact NGOs’ Legal Practice” (2024) 49(1) Law & Social Inquiry 451-477 (corresponding author; with Yueduan Wang).
“An Unlikely Duet: Public-Private Interaction in China’s Environmental Public Interest Litigation” (2023) 12(2) Transnational Environmental Law 396-423 (first author; with Yueduan Wang)
“Quarantined Judicial Expansion: The Environmental Legal Entrepreneurship of Chinese Courts, Procuratorates, and NGOs” (2023) 45(2) Law & Policy 159-180 (corresponding author; with Yueduan Wang)
“The Janus Face of Stateness: China’s Development-Oriented Equity Investments in Africa” (2022) 162 World Development 106133 (first author; with Muyang Chen)
“Judicializing Environmental Politics? China’s Prosecutor-led Public Interest Litigation Against Government” (2022) 253 China Quarterly 90-106 (corresponding author; with Yueduan Wang)
“Chinese Investment in East Africa: History, Status, and Impacts” (2021) 19 Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies 269-293
“What Kinds of Chinese “Geese” Are Flying to Africa? Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Firms” (2018) 27(1) Journal of African Economies 29-51 (last author; with Deborah Brautigam & Xiaoyang Tang).
“China’s Environmental Campaign: How China’s War against Pollution Is Transforming the International Trade in Waste” (2019) 51(3) N.Y.U. Journal of International Law & Politics 1101-1178