After serving in the military in Northeast China from December 1976 to December 1980, Chen worked at a factory in Dalian. He studied law at Liaoning University from 1981 to 1985 and subsequently pursued graduate studies at the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences from 1985 to 1988, earning a master's degree in law. In August 1988, he joined the Institute of Law of CASS.[3]
Chen was promoted to associate research fellow in December 1995 and to research fellow in August 2001. Between February 1999 and September 2002, he served as Director of the Department of Commercial and Economic Law at the Institute of Law. He was appointed doctoral supervisor in June 2002. From September 2002 to December 2005, he served as deputy director of the Institute of Law, and from December 2005 to December 2017, he served as Party Secretary of the joint Party Committee of the Institute of Law and the Institute of International Law, as well as deputy director of the Institute of Law. In December 2017, he was appointed Director of the Institute of Law of CASS.[4]
In September 2018, Chen was elected a member of the Academic Divisions of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. In September 2020, he became Dean of the Law School of the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and in October 2021 he was appointed Distinguished Professor at the same institution.[5]
Chen has long been engaged in research on civil and commercial law, with a focus on company law, securities law, negotiable instruments law, and property law. He has published more than sixty articles in leading Chinese law journals, including Chinese Journal of Law, and has edited or co-edited more than ten books, such as Seventy Years of Legal Studies in New China and Commentary on the General Provisions of Civil Law.[6]
He has participated in major legislative drafting projects in China, including serving as a member of the expert group for the 2005 revision of the Company Law under the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council, a member of the expert group for the 2005 revision of the Securities Law under the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress, and as deputy head of the CASS project team involved in the drafting of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China.[7]
Chen also serves as Vice President of the China Commercial Law Research Association, Vice Chair of the Academic Committee of the Beijing Law Society, a member of the Expert Committee on Guiding Cases of the Supreme People's Court, legal adviser to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, and member of the Legislative Expert Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Government. He has additionally served as an adjunct professor at Dalian Maritime University.[7]