Yu Tao currently serves as the director of the Hainan Free Trade Port Research Center of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies and a research fellow at the research base for foreign cultural exchanges (cultural trade) of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China. His main research areas include free trade port theory and practice, international trade and investment, and marine economy. He previously worked at the Liaoning Provincial Development and Reform Commission, engaging in economic research. He has studied or taken advanced courses at the University of Melbourne in Australia, University College London in the United Kingdom, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and Fudan University. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from University College London and a master’s degree in finance from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

He has published dozens of theoretical review articles in newspapers and periodicals such as People’s Daily, Guangming Daily, Economic Daily, and the Journal of Hainan University. He has authored several works, including “New Form of Opening Up: Theory and Practice of Hainan Free Trade Port Construction” and “International Trade Review.” He has presided over a number of national and provincial-level projects, such as special research topics of national high-end think tanks. Many think tank policy research reports and investigation reports completed under his leadership have received affirmative instructions from the main leaders of the provincial Party committee, the provincial people’s congress, the provincial government, and the provincial political consultative conference.

He has been invited on multiple occasions to give special lectures at the Party School of the Hainan Provincial Party Committee, the School of Continuing Education of Tsinghua University, Haikou Customs, the Cyberspace Affairs Office of the Hainan Provincial Party Committee, the General Office of the Hainan Provincial Government, Hainan Daily, the Hainan International Economic Development Bureau, and China Tourism Group. He has also been invited as an expert guest on many occasions to participate in live broadcasts or record relevant programs of Xinhua News Agency, China News Service, the State Administration of Radio and Television, China Media Group, CGTN, Hainan Satellite TV, Sansha TV, Dragon TV, and Tianjin Satellite TV.