Raoul Bunskoek

Raoul Bunskoek heads the Clingendael China Centre and is Senior Research Fellow at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael 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 understanding Chinese development practices in Africa, 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 Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen, and Hong Kong (July-August 2024, and November-December 2023), Washington, D.C. (March 2023), Singapore (June 2022), and Taipei (April-May 2022), and observed and participated in the daily lives of Chinese mining, construction, and transportation professionals in Copperbelt Province and Lusaka, Zambia (June-July 2023).