Dr. Aifang Ma obtained her Ph.D degree in Political Science in 2022 at the Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics, Sciences Po Paris. Supervised by Professor Colin Hay and in close collaboration with Professor Nonna Mayer, Aifang Ma wrote a thesis on the double-bind regulation of the internet and social media in China from 1987 to 2020. After working as a Boya Postdoctoral Scholar at Peking University from 2022 to 2025, she is currently a Lecturer at the School of Smart Governance, Renmin University of China (RUC). She has the status of Associated Researcher at the Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics, Sciences Po Paris. She is admitted into the 2024 CyberBRICS Fellowship Program hosted at the Center for Technology and Society of Fundação Getulio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro. She currently works on the national and international regulation of artificial intelligence. At Peking University, she spearheaded a comparative research program on the anti-trust regulation of the digital economy in China, the European Union, and the United States. This research program is fully funded by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation. At Renmin University of China, she leads a national research project which deals with the impact of value systems on the regulation of AI. This project is funded by National Social Sciences Fund of China (NSSFC) from 2024 to 2027.  

She has published several peer-reviewed articles in Revue Française de Science Politique, Political Economy of Communication, Public Administration, Constructif, Revue Monde Chinois Nouvelle Asie, Twenty-First Century, Asian Review of Political Economy, African Journal of Information and Communication. She also published articles for The Conversation and the Robert Schuman Foundation. 

Aifang Ma obtained her Bachelor’s degree in French language and culture. Her bachelor degree paper on the sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone obtained an Excellence Prize. Having simultaneously accomplished two Master’s programs at Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) and Sciences Po Paris, she joined the Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE) in 2017. Before joining the CEE, she worked at the Office of the Director-General of the UNESCO in Paris in 2016 and the Embassy of the French Republic in China from 2016 to 2017.

2025: Winner of the 4th Edition Fund for Humanities and Social Sciences (Fonds pour les Sciences Humaines et Sociales), Embassy of France in China, “Comparative Research on the Antitrust Regulation of the Digital Economy in the European Union, China and the United States between 2020 and 2024” 

2024-2027: Chief researcher, national grant for “Comparative Study on the Impact of Value Systems on the Regulatory Models of Artificial Intelligence”, Grant Number: 24CXW048, National Social Science Fund of China, Beijing, China

2024: Research fellow to the “2024 CyberBRICS Fellowship Program”, Center for Technology and Society, Fundação Getulio Vargas Law School, Rio de Janeiro 

2024: Chief researcher, research project: “Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence”, funded by China Council for BRICS Think-Tank Cooperation 

2023-2024: Chief researcher, national grant for “Comparative Research on the Anti-Trust Regulation of the Digital Economy in China, the USA and Europe from 2020 to 2023”, Grant Number: 2023M730104, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation

2020-2021: Laureate of the “Young Researcher Program” Grant, LIEPP (Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Public Policies), Sciences Po Paris

“Media Policy and Media Regulation”, master-level, Peking University, 2024-2025

“Media Policy and Media Regulation”, master-level, Peking University, 2023-2024

May 2025: First Prize for the research paper “The Interaction between geopolitics and the regulation of artificial intelligence”, awarded by the second edition of the Conference on Digital Communication and Media in China 

December 2024: Winner of the 4th edition of the Fund for Humanities and Social Sciences, Embassy of French Republic in China

May 2024: Third Prize for the research paper “Antitrust regulation of the digital economy in China, the USA, and Europe against the backdrop of intensified geopolitical competition”, awarded by the first edition of the Conference on Digital Communication and Media in China 

December 2023: Excellent Teacher Prize, 2023 Annual Contest of Young Teachers at Peking University;

December 2023: Laura Bassi Scholarship, Editing Press. 

March-August 2024: Winner for 2024 CyberBRICS Fellowship Program

Books

Ma, Aifang (2024). China as a Double-Bind Regulatory State: How Regulators’ Predicament Produces Regulatees’ Autonomy. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan.

Ma, Aifang (2023). La Régulation du numérique: Chine, Etats-Unis, France. Paris: Fondation pour l’innovation politique.

Ma, Aifang (2020). Les Biotechnologies en Chine: Un état des lieux. Paris: Fondation pour l’innovation politique.

Ma, Aifang (2018). L’Intelligence artificielle en Chine: Un état des lieux. Paris: Fondation pour l’innovation politique.

Selected Peer-Reviewed Articles

Ma, Aifang (2025). “Une régulation informelle mais efficace: Analyse de la création des cellules du Parti communiste chinois dans les firmes internet privées”. Revue Française de Science Politique, 74(2): 357-374.

Ma, Aifang (2024). “Convergent antitrust regulation of the digital economy in China, the European Union and the United States: Mirror of an intensifying geopolitical competition”. Asian Review of Political Economy, 3(9): 1-26.

Ma, Aifang (2024). “Regulation in pursuit of artificial intelligence (AI) sovereignty: China’s mix of restrictive and facilitative modalities”. African Journal of Information and Communication, 34: 1-16.

Ma, Aifang & Hu, Yong (2024). “Towards an International Governance of Artificial Intelligence: Theoretical Frameworks, Current Dilemmas, and Exploration of Models”. News and Writing 475: 69-80. 

Hu, Yong & Ma, Aifang (2023). “Research on Artificial Intelligence Governance from Perspective of Polanyi’s Double Movement Theory”. Modern Publishing 145: 39-53.