Xi Chen is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His articles have appeared in Comparative Politics and The China Quarterly. He has contributed to three books: Contemporary Chinese Politics: New Sources, Methods, and Field Strategies (Cambridge University Press, 2010), edited by Allen Carlson et al; Popular Protest in China (2008), edited by Kevin O'Brien; and Grassroots Political Reform in Contemporary China (2007), edited by Elizabeth Perry and Merle Goldman.