Profile

Professor Emeritus, University of Auckland, New Zealand. Formerly Professor and Head of the Department of Political Studies, University of Auckland; Chair of East Asian Politics and Head of the China Centre in the School of Government at Durham University, UK; Senior Research Fellow in the Centre of International Studies at Cambridge University, UK; and Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

Research Interests

• Chinese international relations
• China’s Belt and Road Initiative
• The geopolitics of semiconductors

Awards and Honors

• Life Member, Claire Hall, Cambridge (since 2004)
• Visiting Professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong (since 2003)

Selected Publication

• Sole author of a series of four books on China’s Belt and Road Initiative, all published by Edward Elgar Publishing, UK: 
  
  China’s health Silk Road (2024)
  China’s digital Silk Road (2022)
  China’s maritime Silk Road (2020)
  Understanding China’s new diplomacy: Silk Roads and bullet trains (2018)

Books

• Constructing Global Order: Agency and Change in World Politics.Cambridge, 2018.
• The End of American World Order. Polity, 2014, 2018; Oxford, 2015; Chinese Translation, Shanghai People’s Press, 2017.
• Why Govern: Rethinking Demand and Progress in Global Governance. Cambridge, 2016. Edited.
• Rethinking Power, Institutions and Ideas in World Politics: Whose IR. Routledge 2014.
• The Making of Southeast Asia: International Relations of a Region. 2013.
• Non-Western International Relations Theory:  Perspectives On and Beyond Asia. Routledge, 2010. Co-edited.  
• Whose Ideas Matter: Agency and Power in Asian Regionalism. Cornell, 2009.   
• Constructing a Security Community in Southeast Asia. Routledge, 2001, 2009, 2014.  
• Crafting Cooperation: Regional International Institutions in Comparative Politics.Cambridge, 2007. Co-edited. 
• Reassessing Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific. MIT, 2007. Co-edited.
• The Quest for Identity: International Relations of Southeast Asia. Oxford, 2000.

Teaching

• Chinese Development Model in Comparative Perspectives

Semester: Spring 2025 | 11320TSE 602000 | 2 credits 
Module: MAPE Core
Abstract
This course examines the development of the People’s Republic of China, focusing on its economic growth since 1978 when the country adopted its reform and opening up. The course compares China’s development with some countries in East Asia. Topics include China’s five-year plans, its drive to modernise, and its entry into the World Trade Organisation. The course also discusses China’s international development, including its aid policy and its participation in the activities of multilateral development institutions. In addition, we will analyse China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Apart from empirical analysis, we will explore the theoretical underpinnings of China’s development, comparing it to other countries and international organisations, with a focus on the relationship between state and market.

• China in the Global Political Economy

Semester: Spring 2025 | 11320TSE 602200 | 2 credits 
Module: MAPE Core & MGPE Core
Abstract
This course looks at international aspects of China's reform, focusing on why China "opened up to the outside world," how the international system has affected China's developments and how China, in turn, is affecting the world. The course addresses methodological and comparative issues, as well as political, economic, and historical perspectives. It looks at the decision to open the country, the pattern the opening followed, and some of the sectors of society most deeply affected by the opening, all the while assessing how political elites, domestic institutions, and interests, and/or international forces determined the pattern and impact of the opening. The course then turns to China’s engagement with the world, focusing on how China’s economic rise is affecting the world. We will look at China’s role as the “factory of the world,” as a “trading nation,” as well as how China’s environmental problems affect the region.

• International Organizations in Global Politics

Semester: Fall 2024 | 11310TSE 604600 | 2 credits 
Module: 
Abstract
This course assesses the significance of international organizations in global politics. It focuses on the theoretical approaches to the study of international organizations, including the origins and development of these global bodies, especially the growth of regional organizations after the Second World War. It explores the changing roles, functions and norms of these organizations working in such areas as security, economics, environment protection, human rights, public health, resource scarcity, science and technology, and social justice. How does the rise of Asian countries, in particular China, affect inter-state relations and the workings of international organizations?

Other

Hobby: I like leisure reading, and practicing Taichi while serenaded by light classical music.