Staff profile

Gordon Cheung is Associate Professor in International Relations of China. His principal research interests are concerned China in the global political economy and the political economy of the global Chinese diaspora.

From exploring the politics of US-China economic relations, his recent research interest includes the study of the political impact of China's economic rise in the Global South. On the political economy of the global Chinese diaspora, he has been connecting the study of the political economy of Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia (Singapore and Malaysia) to the study of the 'food chain' of the UK Chinese diaspora. He is also interested in the study of the politics of economic integration of Taiwanese business (Taishang) in cross-strait relations. 

He is the author of several books, among them China in the Global Political Economy: From Developmental to Entreprenurial (2018), Intellectual Property Rights in China: Politics of Piracy, Trade and Protection (2009), China Factors: Political Perspectives and Economic Interactions (2007) and Market Liberalism: American Foreign Policy toward China (1998).

He received his PhD from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has held visiting positions from the universities and research institutues in East Asia, Europe and the US, among them Wei Lun Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, Visiting Professor in Renmin University, Visiting Research Fellow in East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, Visiting Scholar in the European Research Centre on Contemporary Taiwan at the University of Tubingen, Visiting Fellow in the Centre of Asian Studies at the University of Hong Kong, British Academy Visitor at the Academia Sinica, Senior Associate Member of St Antony's College at the University of Oxford, and Graduate Exchange Visitor at the University of Hawaii.

He has published articles in disciplinary and regional journals, among them Political Studies, Sustainable Development, The Journal of World Intellectual Property, The Journal of World Investment and Trade, Asia Pacific Business Review, Asian Politics and Policy, East Asian Policy, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies, Issues & Studies, Journal of Contemporary China, China: An International Journal, Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, The China Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal on Greater China and China Report. He also published Chinese books, book chapters and journal articles regularly.

His research has been supported by The British Academy, Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, Universities' China Committee in London, Lee Foundation, Matariki Networks of Universities and Eu Tung Sen Scholarship for Graduate Exchange. He was the Recipient of Political Studies Association/APSA Exchanger Award in 2010. 

Dr Cheung has been the Editor-in-Chief of the journal East Asia: An International Quarterly since 2004. In Durham, he was Director of the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies. He also served as Deputy Director of Research, Chair of Ethics and Risk Committee and Director of Undergraduate Education and Director of Teaching and Learning.

He is the Academic Advisory Board member of the Center for Chinese Entrepreneur Studies at Tsinghua University and the Advisory Board Member of the European Research Centre on Contemporary Taiwan at the University of Tubingen.

He previously served as Rapporteur for the Economic & Social Research Council, Secretary of the Overseas Chinese Studies Foundation in Hong Kong, Non-Panel Reviewer of the Public Policy Research Funding Scheme of the Central Policy Unit of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, External Examiner of the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at Nottingham University and the External Academic Adviser of the MA programme in the Department of Government and International Affairs at Lingnan University. 

He has supervised PhD topics on cross-strait relations, Malaysian political economy, China-Chile political economy of trust and China's international relations of Tianxia. He welcomes PhD applications in particular on the global Chinese diaspora. 

• Cross-Strait relations
• China-US relations
• Greater China studies
• Chinese international political economy
• Chinese political economy
• Chinese diaspora

• 2000: 2016: Wei Lun Distinguished Visiting Professor, Tsinghua University, China
• 2000: 2010: PSA/APSA Exchanger Award, University of Melbourne
• 2000: 2014-17: Non-Panel Reviewer, Public Policy Research (PPR) Funding Scheme, Central Policy Unit (CPU), Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government
• 2000: 2014-now: Academic Advisory Board Member, Center for Chinese Entrepreneur Studies, Tsinghua University, China
• 2000: 2008-now: Advisory Board Member, European Research Centre on Contemporary Taiwan (ERCCT), University of Tubingen
• 2000: 2007: British Academy, Individual Research Visit, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
• 2000: 2004-now: Editor-in-Chief, East Asia: An International Quarterly, Springer (now in Emerging Sources Citation Index, ESCI)
• 2000: 2021-24: External Academic Adviser, Master of Arts and International Affairs, Lingnan University, Hong Kong
• 2000: 2014: External Examiner, School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, Nottingham University, UG in UK campus and MA in Ningbo campus
• 2000: 2017: Guest speaker: 'The Renminbi: A New Global Currency?', Chatham House, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, 23 February 2017
• 2000: 2005: Senior Associate Membership (SAM), St Antony's College, Oxford University
• 2000: 2003: Visiting Professor, Renmin University, China
• 2000: 2005: Visiting Research Fellow, East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore
• 2000: 2011: Visiting Research Fellow, East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore

Authored book

• Cheung, G. C. (2018). China in the Global Political Economy: From Developmental to Entrepreneurial. (New ed.). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781784714918
• Cheung, G. C. (2009). Intellectual Property Rights in China: Politics of Piracy, Trade and Protection. Routledge
• Cheung, G. C. (2006). China Factors: Political Perspectives & Economic Interactions. Routledge
• Cheung, G. C. (1998). Market Liberalism: American Foreign Policy toward China. Routledge

Book review

• Cheung, G. C. (2018). Dancing with the Devil: The Political Economy of Privatization in China. By Lin, Yi-min. Oxford University Press, 2017. The Political Quarterly, 89(3), 511-512. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-923x.12534
• Cheung, G. C. (2012). Transnational Competence: Empowering Professional Curricula for Horizon-rising Challenges. By Koehn, Peter H and Rosenau, James N. Boulder, CO and London: Paradigm. International Affairs, 88(4),
• Cheung, G. C. (2011). Chinese Family Business and the Equal Inheritance System: Unravelling the Myth. By Zheng, Victor. London : Routledge, 2010. China Quarterly, 205, 179-180. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305741011000154
• Cheung, G. C. (2010). Piracy and the State: The Politics of Intellectual Property Rights in China. By Dimitrov, Martin K. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Chapter in book

• Cheung, G. C. (2022). US-China Policy under Trump: The Politics of International Economic Relations. In S. Hua (Ed.), The Political Logic of the US-China Trade War (213-233.). (New ed.). Lexington Book
• Cheung, G. C. (2021). High Hanging Fruit and the Belt and Road Initiative: Sustainability Through Entrepreneurship. In F. M. Cheung, & H. Ying-yi (Eds.), Green Finance, Sustainable Development, and the Belt and Road Initiative (261-284). (New ed.). Routledge
• Cheung, G. C. (2015). Social Science Infrastructure: Eastern Asia and Pacific (Social Science Academies and Related Organizations). In J. D. Wright (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition) (637-642). (2nd ed.). Elsevier
• Cheung, G. C. (2015). ‘Er ci dazhan qian taigu yanghang zai zhongguo de duice gonglue’ (The Strategy and Policy of John Swire Co. in China before 1945). In V. Zheng, & M. Chow (Eds.), Weiji guantou jiazu qiye de yingdui zhi dao (Facing the Crisis: Ways and Resolution of Family Businesses) (173-191.). (New ed.). Hong Kong: Chung Hwa Books Co
• Cheung, G. C. (2015). Let The Hundred Businesses Donate (bai shang qi juan): The New Chinese Ways of Philanthropy, Traditional Values and the US Model. In D. Kerr (Ed.), China's Many Dreams: Comparative Perspectives on China's Search for National Rejuvenation (132-155). (New ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137478979_6
• Cheung, G. C. (2013). Jiazu qiye yu funu: Guoji zhengzhi jingji xue de shiye' (Family Business and Women: New Perspective from International Political Economy). In C. Leung, & V. Zheng (Eds.), Caide zhijian: Huaren jiazou qiye yu funu (Between Leadership and Ethics: Chinese Family Business and Women) (234-247). Chung Hwa Books Co
• Cheung, G. C. (2011). The Significance of the Overseas Chinese in East Asia. In M. Beeson, & R. Stubbs (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Asian Regionalism. Routledge
• Cheung, G. C. (2008). Contested International Relations Theory and China’s Constructing Regional Entitlement. In W. Gungwu, & Z. Yongnian (Eds.), China and the new international order (187-202). Routledge

Journal Article

• Cheung, G. C. (2023). China’s Belt and Road Initiative: The Economic Footprints in the Middle East vs. Geopolitical Dimensions with the United States. East Asian Policy, 15(1), 60-73. https://doi.org/10.1142/s1793930523000053
• Cheung, G. C. (2017). Fighting Global Inequality with Chinese Characteristics: The Role of the Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs). China's world, 2(1), 39-51
• Cheung, G. C., & Gomez, E. T. (2016). When Margaret Thatcher met the Chinese: UK’s SMEs policies in the 1980s and the case of See Woo Holdings. Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, 8(3), 335-354. https://doi.org/10.1108/jeee-04-2015-0031
• Cheung, G. C. (2015). Promoting Europe worldwide. Europe's World (Printed), #31 Autumn 2015, Article online article
• Cheung, G. C., & Gomez, E. T. (2012). 'Hong Kong’s Diaspora, Networks, and Family Business in the United Kingdom: A History of the Chinese “Food Chain” and the Case of W. Wing Yip Group'. China review, 12(1), 45-72
• Xiao, R., & Cheung, G. C. (2011). Sources and Transitions of Chinese Foreign Policy: An Introduction. East Asia, 28(3), Article 169. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12140-011-9149-9
• Cheung, G. C., & Chang, C. Y. (2011). Cultural identities of Chinese business: networks of the shark-fin business in Hong Kong. Asia Pacific Business Review, 17(3), 343-359. https://doi.org/10.1080/13602380903461623
• Cheung, G. C. (2010). The 2008-2009 Global Financial Fallout: Shanghai and Dubai as Emerging Financial Powerhouses?. Asian Politics & Policy, 2(1), 77-93. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1943-0787.2009.01168.x
• Cheung, G. C. (2010). 'New Approaches to Cross-Strait Integration and Its Impacts on Taiwan's Domestic Economy: An Emerging "Chaiwan"?'. Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 39(1), 11-36
• Gomez, E. T., & Cheung, G. C. (2009). Family Firms, Networks and "Ethnic Enterprise": Chinese Food Industry in Britain. East Asia, 26(2), 133-157. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12140-009-9079-y
• Cheung, G. C. (2009). ‘Made in China vs. Made by Chinese: Global Identities of Chinese Business’: An Introduction. Journal of Contemporary China, 18(58), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1080/10670560802431388
• Cheung, G. C. (2009). ‘Governing Greater China: Dynamic Perspectives and Transforming Interactions’. Journal of Contemporary China, 18(58), 93-111. https://doi.org/10.1080/10670560802431677
• Cheung, G. C. (2008). 'International relations theory in flux in view of China's "Peaceful Rise"'. The Copenhagen journal of Asian studies, 26(1), 5-21
• Cheung, G. C. (2006). Hong Kong’s Information Technology after 1997 and the case of 3G Mobile Licences “Auction” in 2001. China: An International Journal, 4(2), 314-326. https://doi.org/10.1142/s0219747206000173
• Cheung, G. C. (2005). 'Involuntary Migrants, Political Revolutionaries and Economic Energisers: a history of the image of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia'. Journal of Contemporary China, 14(42), 55-66. https://doi.org/10.1080/1067056042000300781
• Cheung Gordon, C. (2004). 'Chinese Diaspora as Virtual-Nation: Interactive Roles between Economic and Social Capital'. Political Studies, 52(4), 664-684. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2004.00502.x
• Cheung, G. C., & Chang, C. Y. (2003). 'Sustainable Business versus Sustainable Environment: A Case Study of Hong Kong Shark Fin Business'. Sustainable Development, 11(4), 223-235. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.220
• Nyaw, M.-K., Cheung, G. C., & Chang, C. Y. (2001). 'Money Migration-An Assessment of ASEAN's Investment in China with Special Reference to Overseas Chinese Investment after 1979'. The Journal of world investment, 2(3), 439-455 (lead article)
• Cheung, G. C. (1999). The Political Economy of Social Cost Analysis in Sino—American Disputes over Intellectual Property Rights. Journal of World Intellectual Property, 2(2), 189-207. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-1796.1999.tb00057.x

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Cheung, G. C. (2018). China’s new global economic footprints keep testing the belief in the role between the market and the state
• Cheung, G. C. (2018). The US could learn to like China’s new IP strategy

Report

• Cheung, G. C. (2012). ‘China’s New Endeavour to Protect Intellectual Property Rights.’ EAI Background Brief No. 752, 6 September 2012. Singapore: National University of Singapore. [No known commissioning body]
• Cheung, G. C. (2006). 'China's Intellectual Property Rights Protection after WTO - What has been the Progress?'EAI Background Brief No. 280. 12 April 2006. Singapore: National University of Singapore. [No known commissioning body]

Working Paper

• Cheung, G. C. (2006). Identity: In Searching the Meaning of Chineseness in Greater China