Xinzhe Zhang is a PhD student and Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Department of International Development at King's College London, pursuing research in the field of international political economy.

His PhD thesis focuses on the intersection of semiconductors, global value chains, and the state intervention, examining how powerful states attempt to reshape the production landscape of this critical sector.

Xinzhe earned his BA in International Studies with French at the University of Nottingham, and completed an MSc in Emerging Economies and International Development at King's College London.

Xinzhe speaks Mandarin, English, and French, and is currently studying Japanese. His keen interest in languages, along with his enthusiasm for history and modern technologies, contributes to his research perspective. He hopes that this combination of interests in may offer useful insights when examining current global challenges.

Research

Thesis title: 'Securing Strategic Value Chains: Comparing the United States and China’s Value Chains and Industrial Policies on Semiconductors'

Xinzhe's MSc Thesis focused on East Asian industrial development in semiconductors and sought to understand why China's semiconductor industry currently lags in comparison to South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. His PhD thesis follows the topic of semiconductors but works on the US-China competition and development strategies for semiconductors. By combining the Global Value Chains framework, it seeks to explore how powerful states attempt to reshuffle the global production of semiconductors through industrial policies and export controls.

PhD supervision

• Primary supervisor: Dr Sean Starrs
• Secondary supervisor: Dr Rafeef Ziadah

Further details

See Xinzhe's research profile