Travel scholarship enables student to investigate trade between China and Taiwan
The University is delighted to announce that the first winner for this year’s University of Wales Gareth Jones Memorial Travelling Scholarship is Jen-Ping Chiu, a PhD student of Politics and Cultural Studies at Swansea University.
The University is delighted to announce that the first winner for this year’s University of Wales Gareth Jones Memorial Travelling Scholarship is Jen-Ping Chiu, a PhD student of Politics and Cultural Studies at Swansea University.
Having fought off stiff competition from an exceptionally talented pool of applicants, it was decided that Jen-Ping should receive the £3000 award owing to the invaluable research he has conducted into the trading relationship between Taiwan – his country of birth – and China.
The financial assistance provided by the award will enable Jen-Ping to travel to China to complete the remaining phase of his PhD thesis fieldwork. Interviews will be conducted in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions; he will approach foreign investors and local officials to acquire empirical data on how Chinese local government implement a preferential policy to foreign-financed firms.
Given that China is the world’s fastest emerging major economy - soon to surpass that of the US –, with his research, Jen-Ping wants to enlighten popular understanding of its business culture; one that is often revered and feared in equal measures, allowing a highly successful private sector to flourish under the banner of communism.
His work will also serve to highlight the way in which China has contrived to undermine Taiwan’s independence by making them increasingly dependent on Chinese mainland investment.
Speaking of his feelings having won the award, Jen-Ping said: "I am both thrilled and honoured to be awarded the University of Wales Gareth Jones Memorial Travelling Scholarship 2011. I truly appreciate the University’s consideration, encouragement and faith in me.”
This Scholarship is provided from the income of a Memorial Fund raised by public subscription to perpetuate the memory of Gareth Richard Vaughan Jones, a graduate of the University, who met his death at the hand of bandits in Inner Mongolia, 12 August, 1935.
