Linda Li stresses the role of collaboration as well as conflict in understanding politics and public policy. A specialist in intergovernmental relations and Chinese government reforms, her award-winning piece published in Political Studies back in 1997 advocates an alternative analytical framework to enable observers to take note, and work towards, the occurrence of collaboration and compromise, amidst a general context of mutual distrust and conflict. Trained in political science and sociology, her works have straddled the politics of central-local relations in China, government reforms, rural public finance, equity education, civil society coalitions, and cross-border relations to explore the dynamics of institutional and agency change processes. She was educated in Hong Kong schools before going to London where she earned a doctorate in political studies. She teaches political analysis theories and Chinese government and politics courses, and postgraduate research seminars. She is a regular commentator on Chinese and Hong Kong politics and public policy in the Hong Kong and international media.