Prof. To is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Before joining PolyU, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Public and International Affairs at the City University of Hong Kong, supported by the RGC Hong Kong Postdoctoral Fellowship. Her postdoctoral research examined the opportunities and challenges faced by Chinese technology companies in Europe.
Her research focuses on China’s modernisation and its implications for China’s relations with other countries. Adopting a political economy perspective, she examines how policies and outcomes are shaped by institutions, interests, and power. She also studies migration, particularly the role of intermediaries in shaping migratory patterns, and the influence of social networks on migrant settlement.
Prof. To is the author of Contested Development in China's Transition to an Innovation-driven Economy (Routledge, 2022) and co-editor of Global Hong Kong and the New Hong Kong Diaspora (Routledge, 2025). Her work has appeared in leading international journals, including New Political Economy, Politics, and American Behavioral Scientist. She actively contributes commentary on issues related to Hong Kong and China through opinion pieces in the South China Morning Post and has been interviewed by media outlets such CNN, The Straits Times, and the South China Morning Post on topics related to China’s technological development.
She received the department’s Best Teaching Award in 2025 for promoting and implementing active and immersive learning approaches in her teaching.

• PhD in Asian and International Studies, City University of Hong Kong
• MPhil in International Relations, University of Cambridge
• BSocSc in Political Science, University of Birmingham