Professor Dr Thomas Heberer has been studying China since the late 1960s. He first visited the country in 1975. From 1977 to 1981, he worked as an editor and translator at the Foreign Language Press in Beijing. During this period, he witnessed China’s tremendous transformation from the Mao era to the reform and opening policies. Since then, he has conducted continuous field research on various topics in all of China's provinces for several months almost every year.

At the beginning of 2013, the rector of the University of Duisburg-Essen awarded him a senior professorship in Chinese politics and society, having previously held the chair of East Asian politics. He held this position until 2025. He has continued to be active in basic university research ever since, now as an associate of the university’s Institute of East Asian Studies.

Thomas Heberer was a member of the EU’s China Academic Network (ECAN) for many years and accompanied the Prime Ministers of North Rhine-Westphalia (Rau and Rüttgers) and Federal President Gauck on trips to China. His areas of expertise include the political system and institutions, domestic and foreign policy, German and European-Chinese relations, the role of private entrepreneurs, nationality policies, local politics, urban neighbourhoods, rural areas and the peasantry, religions and religious policies, the history of ideas, the role of the state in the past and present, civil society approaches, cultural history, collective memories and historical consciousness, the history of the People's Republic, the Cultural Revolution, German–Chinese town twinning and city diplomacy, and social disciplining.

The results of these and other projects are documented in numerous publications in eleven languages. In his latest book, Rethinking China: How a Country is Changing and Shaping Our Century (2026), he explores how China has transitioned from utopia to reality and into the future. Today’s China is a laboratory and a reflection of the emerging world order. This book immerses us in everyday life in transition, introducing us to people who live between memory and future. It offers a personal perspective on a country that we must understand to comprehend our own time. It offers a personal, analytical and surprisingly human look at the new China. Having witnessed this transformation, Thomas Heberer takes us on a journey between the past and the future.