Raoul Bunskoek

Raoul Bunskoek is the leader of the Clingendael China Centre since 1 February 2024. He conducts research on China’s foreign policy and diplomacy, China’s (international) political economy, and Chinese development thinking and practices abroad, particularly on the African continent. Raoul previously was Senior Research Fellow at the European Research Council’s ‘Africa’s Infrastructure Globalities’ (INFRAGLOB) project, located at the University of Bayreuth, Germany. His recent publications focus on China’s Community of Common Destiny and the Belt and Road Initiative (2021) and the nature of China’s foreign policy (2019).

Raoul holds PhD and MA degrees in Political Science and International Relations from National Taiwan University, and a BA in Chinese Studies from Leiden University. During his PhD, he worked for the Hu Fu Center in East Asia Democratic Studies and the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica (IPSAS) in Taipei, Taiwan (R.O.C.).

Raoul speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese and has extensive fieldwork experience. He investigated the nature and training of Chinese transnational professionals and cadres in Taipei (April-May 2022), Singapore (June 2022), Washington, D.C. (March 2023), and Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong (November-December 2023), and observed and participated in the daily lives of Chinese mining, construction, and transportation professionals in Copperbelt Province and Lusaka, Zambia (June-July 2023).