The International Centre for China Development Studies (ICCDS) was established in June 2002. It was jointly established by two renowned institutions: Department of Geography, HKU, and the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

From the academic year 2007-2008, ICCDS has been re-located from the Faculty of Arts to the Faculty of Social Sciences. Since then, greater synergy with the Faculty of Social Sciences and its academic departments has been created, and robust platform for interdisciplinary research has been built for China development studies within HKU. Built upon an internationally acclaimed track record of research excellence, ICCDS brings together researchers and experts from the diversity of economics, social sciences, environmental sciences, and humanities from various universities and research institutes to provide better understanding of the unique pattern of Chinese development and its influences on the western world.

ICCDS has continuously improved its performance in research, knowledge exchange and social impact. In the past 5 years, its core members, in collaboration with scholars from many Chinese and overseas universities/research institutes, have published more than 150 peer-reviewed journals and over 20 book chapters to generate insightful and impactful findings.

Aiming to maintain and enhance its performance, ICCDS has restructured its executive committee and will evaluate research priorities regularly and explore opportunities of funding support via a series of discussions and meetings that will embrace relevant stakeholders, so as to align more closely its research directions with the strategic research development of the Faculty and the University, and also serve the society and policy making with timely, advanced, and progressive knowledge generated not only inside but also outside of unique socio, economic, cultural and political context of contemporary China.