In September 2022, Tallinn University together with the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute (EFPI) organised an intensive course on Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) influence work abroad. Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs funded project seeks to help build Estonia’s academic community’s capacity to research China’s political influence activities on a national, regional and global scale, a subject of growing policy relevance, by offering early-career researchers practical skills and theoretical knowledge under the guidance of leading experts in the field.
This course gave the participating students a unique opportunity to gain new insight from some of the best researchers in the field. Jichang Lulu and Alex Joske are world-renowned China-experts who shared their deep knowledge in the Chinese political system and the inner workings of the communist party. During the two-week-long intense course the students also gained new, cutting-edge skills on how to do background research on Chinese companies and other organizations – skills that are becoming more and more vital in today’s world.
One of the participants was our Junior Research Fellow Rüüt Kaljula and amongst the others were two of our new interns — Säde Liis Nelke and Kärt Koppel. ICDS/EFPI is glad to welcome interns whom will be with the ICDS until the end of November and will help us to dig deeper into the Chinese research field.
Säde Liis Nelke is a student at Tallinn University majoring in Asian studies. Now, she has reached HSK 5. level in Chinese. Besides the language, she is interested in China’s cooperation with European countries, especially cultural cooperation.