Welcome! ​I am an assistant professor of political studies at Pitzer College in Claremont, California.

I study authoritarian politics and political economy of development with a special focus on China. My main research interests include 1) political selection and co-optation and 2) new technologies of information manipulation, both with an emphasis on implications for regime stability and security. Specifically, my research seeks to understand how China recruits technocrats in the contemporary era and how this influences state policy towards major national priorities.   
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My work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Political Science Research and Methods and Political Communication. I have also appeared in media outlets including The New York Times, Bloomberg News, and South China Morning Post to provide commentary on Chinese politics.

I received my Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University in 2018, and a B.A. in Government and Economics from Smith College in 2011. Prior to coming to Pitzer, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for the Study of Contemporary China, University of Pennsylvania, for the academic year 2018-2019.

You can reach me at hanzhang_liu[at]pitzer.edu.