Christina Cheng on her research experience at RSU

This summer, Christina Cheng had the opportunity to intern at Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) through the China Studies Centre with Dr Una Bērziņa-Čerenkova. 'I am grateful to have found this opportunity through RSU’s partnership with Stanford University and the Stanford Global Studies programme, where I am an undergraduate student studying History, East Asian Studies and Computer Science,' says Christina.

Christina's story

During my eight weeks living and working in Riga, I participated in events hosted by the centre, assisted Dr Bērziņa-Čerenkova in editing and proofreading papers and articles, and also attended a discourse analysis conference in Valencia, Spain. In addition, I conducted my own research related to the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei’s presence in Europe, which has national security and geopolitical implications. I am working on an article related to a potential Huawei ban at the EU level for CHOICE (China Observers in Central and Eastern Europe), of which Dr Bērziņa-Čerenkova is a research fellow, and a paper comparing media and government narratives in the decisions to ban Huawei in the UK and Vietnam.

During my internship, I learned a great deal about life in academia, was able to engage with China and IR scholars from across Europe, as well as with government officials, think-tankers and other fields, and conduct my own research. I loved that my research was both qualitative and quantitative and thus able to engage with my varied interests.

Besides my work with the internship directly, I am grateful for the opportunity to live in Riga and get to know Latvia and its history, a country which I did not know much about before this summer. Latvia is a beautiful country with what feels like a very vibrant and exciting future, and I am excited for my next visit, whenever that will be.