2026-04-16 Author: Zhang Qingli Source: CSSN.cn – Chinese Social Sciences 

      At the Qingdao Campus of Shandong University, the lights in the office of Professor Edmund Sheng from the Institute for Shanghai Cooperation Organization Studies often burn late into the night. Spread across his desk are not only papers from international academic journals, but also a thick stack of notes from field investigations. For Professor Edmund Sheng, academia has never been an abstract concept, but a practical proposition that resonates with the pulse of national development. From the island city of Macao to the vast landscape of the Belt and Road Initiative, this scholar interprets the profound meaning of "conducting scholarship for the people" through solid research, cutting-edge achievements, and high-quality policy advice.

          From an Island City to Regional and Country Studies

      Professor Edmund Sheng’s academic journey began in Macao. His long experience of living and working in Macao sparked a keen interest in the governance challenges of a highly open city under the framework of "One Country, Two Systems". In 2014, a research project on external capital inflows into Macao became a pivotal turning point in his academic transformation. While leading his team in the investigation, he found that the penetration of external capital in the local economy had gone far beyond the purely economic sphere and might involve deep-seated national security risks.

      To clarify this issue, he led his team in conducting extensive field visits and data sorting at the grassroots level of Macao society, among relevant functional departments, and in industry associations. They even constructed game theory models to analyze the logic of capital operation and its impact on the political ecology. This research lasted a full decade, yielding dozens of research reports and multiple papers in top international academic journals.

      The governance challenges facing Macao are essentially a microcosm of global geopolitical and economic competition. This shift in perspective led Professor Edmund Sheng’s research from a single city to the broader field of regional and country studies, covering the Belt and Road Initiative, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Arctic governance,  and other areas.

      "The most pressing issue to address at present is how to achieve unity between high-quality development and high-level security in opening up at a higher level," said Professor Edmund Sheng. Cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative and the SCO must focus not only on economic growth but also on risk prevention, and resolve the structural contradiction of "pursuing both openness and security".

      In his own way, Professor Edmund Sheng conducts research where national development needs it most: identifying research topics from real-world pain points. In response to inconsistent statistical data and difficulties in accessing information in some Belt and Road partner countries, he led his team to develop internationally competitive measurement models for quantitative research on the scale of the "shadow economy". He has published monographs in English and German with international publishers such as Springer and Palgrave Macmillan, explaining the rationality of China’s initiatives in academic language and telling China’s stories well in international dialogue. Relying on the Institute for Shanghai Cooperation Organization Studies at Shandong University, he has formed an interdisciplinary team covering international relations, economics, data science, and other fields, focusing on practical issues in China’s domestic governance and foreign affairs.

      "Academic research is not self-indulgence in an ivory tower," said Professor Edmund Sheng. "Being able to integrate personal academic pursuits into the development practices of the Belt and Road Initiative and the SCO to serve the country with scholarship is the most gratifying thing for me as a scholar."

          Rooted in Reality and Conducting Field Research

      Professor Edmund Sheng and his team have conducted field research across multiple SCO member states, particularly Russia and Kyrgyzstan. In the process, they encountered difficulties such as language barriers, uncertain local policies, limited data access, and cultural differences. What left a deep impression on him, however, was an experience investigating non-traditional security risks in Belt and Road partner countries in Central Asia.

      "We needed to ascertain the scale of the local 'shadow economy', but when we consulted local government statistical yearbooks, the data were completely inconsistent with the trade activity data we obtained from field investigations," Professor Edmund Sheng recalled.

      To obtain authentic first-hand information, he took the initiative to invite local dignitaries and experts to join the research team. With the support of these local resources, the team not only gained vivid research insights but also engaged in direct dialogue with local decision-makers. Professor Edmund Sheng’s multilingual background also proved invaluable – in international exchanges, communicating directly in the language familiar to the other party often breaks down barriers and, more importantly, restores the true situation.

      Another research project took place at the SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Zone in Qingdao, Shandong. While undertaking the research project "Study on Optimizing Industrial Cooperation Mechanisms Between Shandong and SCO Member States", Professor Edmund Sheng’s team visited the SCO Demonstration Zone and relevant enterprises, held discussions with experts from the China-SCO Institute of Economics and Trade, and conducted in-depth exchanges with staff from platforms including the Silk Road E-Commerce Comprehensive Service Base, local economic and trade comprehensive service platforms, and the SCO Economic and Trade Big Data Sharing and Exchange Hub. They identified a widespread yet under-systematically-analyzed problem: the "three mismatches".

      "First, policy mismatch: preferential policies at the central level often become 'paper dividends' due to blocked 'last-mile' implementation. Second, industrial standard alignment mismatch: many local enterprises in Shandong possess technology and products but lack familiarity with the policies, laws, and industrial standards of SCO member states. Third, information mismatch: market dynamics from Central Asia and Russia often reach Shandong enterprises with a lag," explained Professor Edmund Sheng.

      To address these issues, the team relied on the SCO Overseas Joint Research Institute initiated by Shandong University to conduct joint field research with experts from the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI of Russia and Kyrgyz National University, listened to the voices of entrepreneurs, investigated the actual conditions of local markets, and proposed building a collaborative mechanism integrating "strategic research + policy advice + talent cultivation + social services".

      It was through such field research that Professor Edmund Sheng gradually developed his own research methodology: adhering to problem orientation, rooting in reality, and promoting interdisciplinary collaboration. As a result, the team he leads has become a think tank force with both academic depth and practical capabilities.

          Academic Achievements Serving National Strategies

      Professor Edmund Sheng’s research achievements extend far beyond academic papers and monographs. His series of studies on urban security governance in Macao best exemplify the full process from "academic output" to "policy implementation". This decade-long research progressed from micro-observations of the expansion of Macao’s gaming industry and the infiltration of foreign capital, to analyzing the deep impact of foreign investment on local governance structures and political ecology using game theory models, and finally to producing multiple research reports.

      "The research results directly participated in the formulation of the Overall Development Plan for the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin," Professor Edmund Sheng introduced. "Specific proposals on strengthening security governance and improving the special administrative region’s governance system have been reflected in Macao’s legal construction and administrative reforms in recent years."

This is merely a microcosm of how academic achievements serve national strategies. Professor Edmund Sheng’s international economic model research on global economic imbalances, published in journals such as Economics and Politics, was adopted and issued by relevant national ministries and commissions to refute Western public opinion’s misinterpretation of China’s economic policies. His theoretical exploration of "non-traditional security governance" is being transformed into an "AI Shadow Economy Monitoring System" developed in cooperation with local state-owned enterprises in Qingdao, aiming to provide real-time risk early warnings for Chinese enterprises going global.

      "High-level academic publications and high-quality policy advice are by no means contradictory; instead, they are deeply integrated and mutually supportive," Professor Edmund Sheng believes. Academic research provides theoretical foundation and methodological support for policy consulting, while national strategic needs point the way for academic research. Translating academic achievements into "solid support" for national decision-making tests both a scholar’s academic competence and his ability to understand reality.

Looking back on his cross-boundary journey – from German literature at Peking University to economics in Germany, from Macao to Shandong, and from urban studies to SCO research – "conducting scholarship for the people" is not a slogan for Professor Edmund Sheng, but a daily practice: it lies in the papers revised repeatedly late at night, the arduous field investigations in foreign lands, and the constant efforts to translate academic language into policy proposals. "When you realize your research resonates with national development, this path will never be lonely," he said with a smile.