On October 28, 2023, the China-Arab Network of Schools of Public Policy and Administration (CANSPPA) was launched during the inaugural China-Arab Forum on Global Development and Governance. The launching ceremony of CANSPPA was witnessed by Li Jin, President of Fudan University, Amr Salama, Secretary-General of the Association of Arab Universities, Yubo Du, President of China Association of Higher Education, and Farraj Alajmi, Director of the Education and Scientific Research Department of the League of Arab States. Secretary-General Salama and Director Farraj attended the CANSPPA sub-forum, delivered congratulatory remarks on the network's establishment, and gave thematic speeches.

Representatives from the sponsoring member institutions of CANSPPA participated in the launching ceremony and CANSPPA sub-forum. Arab representatives included Shujun Jiang, Associate Professor of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at UAE University, Hamid Ali, Dean of the College of Economics, Administration, and Public Policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Noha Elmekawy, Dean of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the American University in Cairo, Hasan Almomani, Dean of the Prince Abdullah II School of International Studies at the University of Jordan, and Professor Sofiane Sahraoui, a founding member of the Middle East and North Africa Public Administration Research Network. Chinese representatives included Professor Lihua Yang from the School of Government at Peking University, Huanming Wang, Dean of the School of Public Administration and Policy at Dalian University of Technology, Yijia Jing, Dean of the Institute for Global Public Policy at Fudan University, Lijing Yang, Associate Professor of the School of Government at Nanjing University, Chengzhi Yin, Vice Dean of the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University, Alfred Ho, Head of the Department of Public and International Affairs at City University of Hong Kong, and Qiushi Wang, Vice Dean of the School of Government at Sun Yat-sen University.

CANSPPA is a nonprofit academic network, whose members are schools and other academic institutions involved with public policy and administration. The mission of CANSPPA is to facilitate sustained educational and research cooperation between its members in particular and Chinese and Arab universities in general. In the long run, CANSPPA may develop into an open South-South dialogue between China and Arab countries that creates and shares knowledge on common policy and governance issues such as global climate adaptation, economic transition, urban rejuvenation, technological innovation and digital transition, poverty alleviation, sustainable development, and social equity. 

CANSPPA is an initiative of the Institute for Global Public Policy (IGPP) of Fudan University, which delivers highly international degree education as well as rigorous multidisciplinary policy and administration studies. IGPP collaborates with the Association of Arab Universities (AArU) to promote innovative higher education cooperation between China and the Arab World. The secretariat of CANSPPA will be hosted in the Fudan-Arab Research Centre for Global Development and Governance, which is co-sponsored by Fudan University and AArU. CANSPPA governance will associate its members. The secretariat will work to promote innovative cooperation between members, including organizing annual meetings. There will be no financial obligations on members to join CANSPPA, whose activities will be based on budget availability.

During the CANSPPA sub-forum, representatives of sponsoring member institutions unanimously elected Dean Yijia Jing of the Institute for Global Public Policy at Fudan University as the first President of CANSPPA. The Institute for Global Public Policy at Fudan University is engaged in research and talent development in global governance and serves as the leading Chinese institution in the China-Arab 10+10 Cooperation Plan in the field of public policy.