Dr Gemma Cheng’er Deng is a scholar of China’s foreign policy and global strategy, as well as China’s strategic communications.

Her work focuses on understanding how best to conceptualise China as an international relations actor in the twenty-first century and on contemporary UK–China relations. Her PhD thesis, supervised by Professor Kerry Brown, is titled ‘The Golden Era: Sino–UK Relations 2015–2023 and Chinese Discourse Power’. It offers the most comprehensive full-length study of the ‘Golden Era’ of UK–China relations, examining China’s strategic communications during this period and the perceptions of its effectiveness by key British stakeholders. The thesis also assesses the reasons for the eventual failure of this diplomatic phase.

Gemma is the co-author of 'China Through European Eyes: 800 Years of Cultural and Intellectual Encounter'. She is currently working on her monograph on China’s strategic communications in the UK during the Xi Jinping era and UK–China relations, as well as co-authoring the Oxford History of Modern China with Professor Kerry Brown.

Research

• Chinese foreign policy
• UK–China relations
• Chinese public diplomacy
• Chinese media and strategic communications
• Political narratives and soft power
• China’s portrayal in Western media

Expertise and public engagement

• Guest lectures delivered at the Department of War Studies, on China’s strategic communications and International Relations history
• Panelist at LSE on Soft Power vs Hard Power
• Guest lecture for the Royal Society for Asian Affairs on Chinese media
• Panelist at the University of Cambridge on Europe–China relations
• Presented PhD research at Tsinghua University’s Annual Conference of the Academic Community of Political Science and International Relations

Further details

See Gemma's research profile