From 1998 onward, Liu Kaiming has been one of China's most active experts in the field of corporate social responsibility, and has gained a far-reaching reputation in the fields of labor research, human rights activism, supply-chain risk management, and worker ability development. In March of 2001, he founded the Institute of Contemporary Observation (ICO), China's first non-profit organization dedicated to labor development and corporate social responsibility. In March 2003 he became an Advisory Board member of Social Accountability International. In March of 2004 he founded the Migrant Workers Community College, within which ICO could conduct community education. Before founding ICO, he was a professor in Guangxi Normal University's Chinese department (1990-1994) and a journalist for the Shenzhen Legal Daily (1997-2002)