Joël Bellassen, born Sidi-bel-Abbès, French Algeria on 27 May 1950, is a former professor (Professeur des universités) of Chinese at Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales and the first Inspector General in the field of Chinese Language Teaching at the Ministry of Education (France). He has been well known in his field in France since he co-wrote the book Méthode d’Initiation à la Langue et à l’Écriture chinoises, which became one of the main textbooks used to teach Chinese in French secondary schools. He is now the President of the European Association for Chinese Teaching.

In 2006 he was made the first Inspector General in the field of Chinese Language Teaching at the French Ministry of National Education. His reference book in the field of Chinese teaching, Méthode d’initiation à la langue et à l’écriture chinoises (1989, ISBN 2-9504135-1-X, with the collaboration of Zhang Pengpeng，张朋朋), became one of the main textbooks used to teach Chinese in French secondary schools and which mirrors the international approach of the “zi benwei” (字本位 Character-based constructional approach to Chinese). Several of his texts on teaching have been translated into English. He is one of the vice-presidents of the International Chinese Language Teachers Association.