Jean-François is President of the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (l’Inalco) in Paris. Between 2017 and 2019, he was Vice-President of Research at l’Inalco and, before that, Director of the Asian Studies Center (ASIEs), also attached to the institution (2014-2017). From 2006 to 2011, he was Director of the Center for Research on Contemporary China (CEFC), an institution that belongs to the network of French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), based in Hong Kong, and Director of the academic journal China Perspectives.

He lived in Asia for 18 years and held various positions during this time, including Senior Research Fellow at the CEFC, Senior Research Fellow at the Maison franco-japonaise in Tokyo (1993-1997) and PhD Researcher at the Peking University (1987-1991).

His research and publications have focused on the role of the state in the economic development of China and India, as well as on the global consequences of the Asian giant’s development. His latest book and articles include the following titles: The Environmental Crisis in China (2016, Paris, Presses de SciencesPo); China and India in Central Asia, A new Great Game? (2010, New York, Palgrave Macmillan); Impact of 1989 on the Emergence of State and Authoritarian Capitalism in China (1989) or Europe and the World transformed (Jacques Rupnik and Christian Lequesne [eds.], 2011, London, Routledge).

He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Rennes (France).