Xiao's research intersects the areas of political geography, political ecology and international development. Based on extensive fieldwork in Africa and China over a decade, her scholarly attention has mainly been paid to environmental change and government, water politics, the political nature of big infrastructures (esp. large dams) and agrarian change.

Her research findings have been published in top journals in Human Geography, Environmental Studies, Political Science, and related fields. Xiao is an Editorial Board member of Humanities & Social Sciences Communications (Nature Portfolio) and a Youth Editorial Board member of Chinese Geographical Science (Springer). She is joining the Editorial Board of Political Geography (Elsevier) in January 2025.