Jue Wang is a University Lecturer at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies. Jue is a scholar of Chinese economy and Global Political Economy. With a regional focus on China, her areas of expertise include international political economy, development finance, international organisations, technology policies and global governance. Jue has published in International Relations, Chinese Journal of International Politics, International Affairs, and Chinese Political Science Review, among others. She is a frequent media commentator on issue topics related to the Chinese and international political economy.

More information about Jue Wang

Fields of interest

•  Chinese political economy
• China’s external economic relationship
• Chinese overseas investment
• China’s role in regional and global economic governance
• International organisations, including the IMF, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, New Development Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
• Belt and Road Initiative
• Development finance
• Global governance
• Environmental/sustainability politics
• Emerging market economies

Research

Jue’s research has four inter-linked tracks:
 

1. Development finance, Belt and Road Initiatives (BRI), and their environmental and social impacts
   Jue’s research assesses decision-making, implementation and consequences of China’s overseas development finance activities. It seeks the rationale of China’s overseas development activities, including bilateral and multilateral loans, aid offering and project deployment, in the country’s own development experience, its domestic political and socio-economic conditions and its evolving foreign policy goals. She examines how structural features of China’s political administration, distribution of development resources, state business models and development norms determine domestic institutions’ overseas development financing. She also analyses China’s interaction with a wide range of multilateral development finance institutions.
    
2. China and international economic governance
   Jue’s research investigates China’s multilateral engagement in the issue areas of trade, development finance and financial regulation. In doing so, it assesses the impact of China’s economic rise on the liberal international economic order. She studies China’s engagement with regional organisations in Asia and beyond, ranging from ASEAN+3 to the Inter-America Development Bank, as well as global ones like the World Bank, WTO, and IMF. She particularly looks into how international organisations’ governance structure, policy-making approaches, implementation procedures and institutional culture influence their relationship with China.
    
3. China and the globalisation of technological innovation
   Jue’s research analyses China’s approaches to the globalisation of technological innovation, including:
   1. exports and imports of high-tech goods and services;
   2. cross-border investments in tech companies and R&D activities;
   3. cross-border R&D collaboration;
   4. international techno-scientific collaboration.
   These approaches are examined in a framework built upon the concept of ‘economic statecraft’. The research analyses the data of China’s innovation record and high-tech trade and investment.
    
4. Transformations in global climate finance
   Jue’s research maps the rapidly evolving climate finance landscape and answers urgent questions, including why developed countries are reluctant to contribute to big multilateral climate funds despite the climate crisis; how novel climate clubs reflect the preference of their member states; and how the emergence of these clubs impacts climate justice and efficiency.
   
   Current Research Projects

• Development finance and Chinese implications (multiple public funding sources)
• China’s role in global economic governance. Main case studies: China’s interactions with the World Bank, the IMF, and the ADB since the 1980s and China’s recent efforts in setting up the (BRICS’) NDB and the AIIB (multiple public funding sources)
• Globalisation of technological innovation; China’s economic statecraft in technology policy-making (multiple public funding sources)
• South-south triangular investment cooperation between China and Gulf in Africa
• Innovations in climate finance beyond traditional development banks (Funded by Global Transformation and Governance Challenges)

Grants and awards

• Global Transformations and Governance Challenges Initiative, Seed Grant (2023)
• LIAS Small Research Grant (2022)
• LIAS Travel Grant (2021)
• Asian Modernities and Traditions Project Grant (2019)
• LeidenAsiaCentre Project Grant (2019)
• Chatham House Policy Research Grant (2018)
• Asian Modernities and Traditions Project Grant (2017)
• Asian Modernities and Traditions Project Grant (2015)
• Modern East Asia Research Centre Project Grant (2014)
• International Studies Association Annual Conference Travel Grant (2013)

Curriculum vitae

Jue received her PhD from the University of Warwick, UK where she was trained in the fields of International Political Economy and Global Governance. She writes, speaks and consults in several areas connected to economic development, development finance, regional and global governance, Chinese external economic relationship, and emerging economies, among others. She worked as an associate fellow at the Asia Programme, Chatham House (2017-2022), and consulted and published policy-oriented works in a wide range of topics including China-Eurasia, China-MENA, China-Pakistan and China-US relations, global investment governance, Chinese economic prospectives, China’s role in global economic governance, Belt and Road Initiatives, and technology competition, among others. She is a frequent commentator on media, including the BBC, The Times, DW, Volkskrant, Newsweek, Wired, CGTN, The New York Times, among others. She has taught in the programmes related to politics, international political economy, international relations, business studies and China Studies in Warwick University, UK and Leiden University, Netherlands.

Education
2010-2014 PhD Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick
2008-2009 MA International Relations, University of Warwick
2004-2007 BSc (Hons) Economics, University of Nottingham

Employment
2014-Present University Lecturer, Leiden University Institute for Area Studies
2017-2022 Associate Fellow, Asia Programme, Chatham House: The Royal Institute of International Affairs
2010-2013 Graduate Teaching Fellow, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick
2013 Research fellow, Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Warwick

Teaching activities and supervision

Dr. Wang supervises students working on the political economy of China, China in Global Political Economy, and China in International Relations. Dr. Wang welcomes topics dealing with development finance, environmental finance, south-south cooperation, trade, investment, global governance, international economic organisations, technology governance and economic foreign policies. Students interested in focusing on China’s overseas (development) finance, China’s external economic relationship, and China’s role in international organisations, emerging economies’ role in international organisations are especially encouraged to approach her.

Jue has taught the following graduate and undergraduate courses at Leiden:

• Modern Chinese Economy and Development (BA lecture)
• China and the Global Political Economy (BA seminar)
• Economy: East Asia (BA lecture)
• China’s International Political Economy (MA seminar)
• Emerging Economies (BA seminar)
• Statistical Methods (MA seminar)
• Research Methods and Thesis Writing (BA seminar)
• Regionalism and Regionalisation in International Relations of East Asia (BA seminar)

Other activities

Jue co-chairs the Leiden Political Economy Group, a multidisciplinary network of scholars with research interests in (comparative/global) political economy based at Leiden University.

Jue is also the chair of the education committee (opleidingscommissie) of the China Studies Programme at Leiden University.