Sebastian Heilmann is the founding president of the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) in Berlin, one of the largest international think tanks for research into contemporary China, and a professor for the political economy of China. Heilmann has many years’ experience providing advice to German and European policy-makers.

Heilmann co-edited Mao's Invisible Hand: The Political Foundations of Adaptive Governance in China (Harvard University Press, 2011, with Elizabeth J. Perry). His book China's Foreign Political and Economic Relations: An Unconventional Global Power (2014, co-authored with Dirk H. Schmidt) brings a European perspective to the international debate on China’s global rise. Heilmann is the editor and principal author of a comprehensive volume on China’s Political System (2016, English and German language editions) that includes numerous case studies of Chinese economic and technology policies.