Prof. YAN Anlin is Senior Research Fellow and former Vice President of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS). With expertise covering Taiwan studies and cross-Straits relations, Prof. Yan is involved in the decision-making process of mainland’s policy towards Taiwan through government advisory roles and academic publications. He has written, edited and complied a large number of books, journals, dictionaries on Taiwan politics and cross-Straits relations, among which featuring A Study of Taiwan Elections, A Study of the DPP’s External Relations, Taiwan Issue in the Global Context (co-author), History of the DPP (co-author), the Big Evolution of Taiwan’s External Relations, On the Institutionalization of Peaceful Development of Cross-Straits Relations, A Study on Cross-Straits Political Negotiations, Taiwan Studies, A Survey on Taiwan Politics and Cross-Straits Relations, A Contemporary Dictionary of Taiwan Economics, A Contemporary Dictionary of Who’s Who in Taiwan.

As a senior policy advisor, Prof. Yan chaired a number of national research programs, namely “The Taiwan Issue and the Prospects for Cross-Straits Reunification at the Dawn of the New Century,” “A Study of the New Generation in Taiwan,” “A Study on the DPP’s Transformation,” and “On Taiwan’s Mainstream Public Opinion,” etc. He also translated a book on local politics in rural Taiwan. 

In his academic career, Prof. Yan was appointed Director of the Research Department of the Shanghai Association of Taiwan Studies in July 1992 and became Associate Senior Fellow in 1994. Beginning in April 1999, he worked at the Shanghai Institute of Taiwan Studies as Vice President, later as Executive Vice President and concurrently Secretary-General of the Shanghai Association of Taiwan Studies. In December 2003, he became a Senior Fellow. In January 2008, he was appointed Director of the Department of Cross-Straits, Hong Kong, and Macao Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS). In 2009, he was appointed Executive Director of the Institute for Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao Studies at SIIS. In January 2015, he was appointed Vice Chairman of the Academic Council at SIIS, and in September appointed the SIIS Vice President. He is now concurrently board member and senior fellow at a number of influential academic associations on Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao studies, such as the Chinese Association of Taiwan Studies, the Law Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies, the Chinese Association of Strategic Studies, and the Center for the Study of Cross-Straits Relations.

Prof. Yan Anlin obtained his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history from the Nanjing University, among which his doctoral degree was the first ever Ph.D. in Taiwan studies conferred on China’s mainland.