Marina Rudyak

Dr. Marina Rudyak studied Modern and Classical Chinese Studies as well as Public Law in Heidelberg and Shanghai, completing her M.A. degree in 2009 with a thesis on “China’s Energy Security Policy in Central Asia”. From 2009 to 2013, she was a programme manager with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) in Beijing implementing a programme on regional economic cooperation and integration. In 2014, she returned to Heidelberg University to pursue a PhD on China’s foreign aid—drawing on her practical experience in development cooperation and her academic training in Chinese studies. She completed her doctorate in 2020 with the dissertation Becoming a Donor: National Role Conception, Reform Dynamics and Learning in China’s Foreign Aid System, supervised by Barbara Mittler (Heidelberg) and Emma Mawdsley (Cambridge), graduating summa cum laude.

Between 2022 and 2024, she held interim professorships at the Universities of Frankfurt (Political Science of East Asia), Göttingen (Society and Economy of China), and Heidelberg (substituting for the chair of Prof. Barbara Mittler). Since April 2024, she has served as a Principal Investigator in the Horizon Europe project Detecting and Countering Information Suppression from a Transnational Perspective (https://deconspirator.eu/). She is co-founder of the http://www.decodingchina.eu/, which explores how key concepts of international cooperation are understood and employed in official Chinese discourse. In 2025, she was appointed to the editorial team of the newly established journal Pluriversal International Relations. In addition, she regularly contributes her expertise to public debates and advises government bodies and NGOs on China’s development cooperation and global engagement.

• Global China
• Chinese foreign aid and international cooperation with the Global South, especially in Africa and Central Asia
• China-Russia relations
• Ideology of the Chinese Communist Party and coded communication in Chinese politics
• Political narratives and the competition for international discourse power

In German

• „Ist Schwarz-Rot gewappnet für den Umgang mit China, Marina Rudyak?“, The Pioneer, 11. Juni 2025. 

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• „China verstehen“, WDR 5 Redezeit, 4. Juni 2025. 

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• „Eins zu Eins. Der Talk – Marina Rudyak, Sinologin: Vom Dialog mit dem Drachen“, Bayern 2, 5. Mai 2025. 

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• „Narrative Allianzen und verborgene Divergenz: Mediensprache in Chinas pro-russischer Neutralität“, Universität Zürich, 14. November 2024. 

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• „Wettbewerb um Afrika: Indiens und Chinas Engagement um afrikanische Projekte”, Friedrich Naumann Stiftung, 13. Dezember 2023. 

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In English

• „To Demystify China‘s Old & Deep Rooted Development & Aid Policy“, BRI Dialogues, 2. Oktober 2023. 

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• „Wie China-kompetent sind wir?“, Universität Bonn / Chinas Moderne begreifen, 26. Juli 2023. 

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• „State of Global China“, Asia Society – State of Asia, 9. Mai 2023. 

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• „Unpacking Global China: Beijing’s View on Development, Modernization, and the World“, Global Research Institute, William & Mary, 20. März 2023. 

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• „The Belt and Road Initiative and China's relations with the Global South“, Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), 5. Dezember 2022. 

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• „China, Europe, and the Russo-Ukrainian War“, Sinica Podcast, 21. April 2022. 

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• „Chinese Aid and South-South Cooperation“, In Pursuit of Development, 8. Juli 2020. 

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Authored and Edited Volumes

• Dialog mit dem Drachen. Wie uns strategische Empathie gegenüber China stärken kann. Frankfurt: Campus, 2025. 

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• Maximilan Mayer, Emilian Kavalski, Xin Zhang and Marina Rudyak (ed.): Routledge Handbook of Global China. London: Routledge, 2024. 

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• China’s International Development Cooperation – History, Development Finance Setup and Case Studies from Africa. Berlin: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 2023. 

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• Becoming a Donor: National Role Conception, Reform Dynamics and Learning in China’s Foreign Aid System. Inaugural Dissertation, Heidelberg University, 2020. 

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Peer-Reviewed Articles and Contributions to Edited Volumes

• „China’s Relations with the World Bank: Between Great Power and Developing Country“. In: Elgar Companion to the World Bank, hg. von Antje Vetterlein und Tobias Schmidtke. Cheltenham/Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024. 

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• „Decoding China’s Reading of Development and Cooperation Norms“. In: Routledge Handbook of Global China, hg. von Maximilian Mayer, Emilian Kavalski, Marina Rudyak und Xin Zhang. London: Routledge, 2024. 

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• „Development and Aid in Africa in Light of US-China Rivalry—The US Perspective on Europe“. In: Europe in an Era of US-China Strategic Rivalry: Challenges and Opportunities from an Outside-in Perspective, hg. von Sebastian Biba. Cham: Springer, 2024. 

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• „‘We Help Them, and They Help Us’: Reciprocity and Relationality in Chinese Aid Discourse“. Journal of International Development 35, Nr. 4 (2023): 583–599. 

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• „China’s Development Co-operation“ (mit Rolf Schwarz). OECD Development Co-operation Working Paper 113, Dezember 2023. 

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• Cooperation with Chinese Actors on Anti-Corruption: Environmental Governance as a Pilot Area (mit Bertram Lang). Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, Chr. Michelsen Institute, 2022. 

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• „China’s Lending Landscape, Approach to Debt and the Common Framework“ (mit Yunnan Chen). ODI Emerging Analysis. London: ODI, 21. Oktober 2021. 

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• „The Past in the Present of Chinese International Development Cooperation“. Made in China Journal 6, Nr. 2 (2021): 80–86; 302–305. 

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• „The Motives of China’s Foreign Aid“ (mit Andreas Fuchs). In: Handbook of the International Political Economy of China, hg. von Ka Zeng. Cheltenham/Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019. 

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• „The Ins and Outs of China’s International Development Agency“. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2. September 2019. 

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• „China’s ‘Innovative and Pragmatic’ Foreign Aid: Shaped by and Now Shaping Globalisation“ (mit Lauren Johnston). In: China’s New Sources of Economic Growth, hg. von Song Ligang u. a., S. 341–451. Canberra: ANU Press, 2017. 

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• De-Conspirator |

  http://www.deconspirator.eu/

• Decoding China |

  http://www.decodingchina.eu/