FLPC Welcomes Dr. Pinghui Xiao as Visiting Scholar

The Food Law and Policy Clinic this Spring welcomed Dr. Pinghui Xiao, Senior Lecturer, Law School, Guangzhou University, China, as a visiting scholar.

Prior to his current assignments, Xiao worked in the former China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA). He is Principal Investigator for two national research grants, which enable him to continue work on his publication series titled “Edible Internet” and “Digital Health”.

In 2023, he was employed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations as a legal consultant to advise FAO’s legal office on food e-commerce legislation around the globe, among other issues. He was also nominated by the U.S. Department of State as a 2019 fellow for the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis.

He obtained a PhD in law from University of South Australia and an LLM in European and International law from Maastricht University, The Netherlands, after finishing his LLB in China. He has also supervised students, at both undergraduate and master levels, to write theses on general food laws and specific topics like food bank and donation, e-commerce among other topics.

His research interests include food and drug laws and health law. As part of his fellowship he participated in the following events:

In March 2024, he joined an HLS panel discussion titled “Edible Internet: How Food E-Commerce is Shifting Regulatory Appetites Globally” moderated by FLPC Clinical Faculty and Director Professor Emily Leib. This event brings together a diverse group of international experts to explore the rapidly evolving landscape of food e-commerce and its regulatory challenges and opportunities around the world. He was joined by Mr Teemu Viinikainen, International Legal Consultant for the Development Law Service of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and Dr. MJ Plana Casado, former FLPC visiting scholar, author of “E-food: Closing the Online Enforcement Gap in the EU Platform Economy”.

In May 2024, he was invited by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to present at the International Symposium on Food Safety and Control. He gave a presentation on  China’s Food Fraud Regulation in the Digital Age. In the presentation, he summarized China’s food fraud regulation into what he called a regulatory triad containing three components, Professional Counterfeit Hunting, Private Regulation from Online Platforms, Official Control Enabled by Mystery Shopping. Here the recording of his talk: starts at 3h:27min: https://streaming.iaea.org/24504