Our research, funded by the Center for Undergraduate Research (CURF) and Fellowships Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program (PURM), supports the work of Jacques deLisle, Professor of Law and Political Science and Director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China. We worked on three projects. The first project, Law’s Changing Roles in China, covered the Reform Era (post-1978), Mao Era (1949-1976), and Xi Jinping Era (1990s-present). Through qualitative analysis, we examined the different manners by which the China Communist Party has used law and legal institutions to govern the economy, society, and the party-state. The second project, China’s Janus-Faced Sovereignty and its Implication, explores how sovereignty at the international level is conceived in “naturalist” terms, while domestically, sovereignty is defined in “positivist” views. Under this project, research assistants analyses case studies including: governance of Hong Kong, the Taiwan question, Xinjiang, disputes in the South and East China seas, and China-India border conflicts. The third project, Not Quite Déjà Vu All Over Again: CPTPP Accession and Taiwan-China-U.S. Relations, investigates geopolitical, legal, and economic contexts surrounding Taiwan’s and China’s applications to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for a Trans-Pacific Partnership, as well as the U.S.’s position on related issues. The significance of this research can be encapsulated by explorations of important issues in China’s foreign policy and domestic governance, helping to guide U.S. and international responses. Ultimately, the projects help to generate a framework with which to interpret Chinese shifts to more aggressive or more accommodative policy postures.