Su Bai

I am a first-year MPhil candidate in International Relations at Somerville College, University of Oxford. My research interests center around China’s environmental diplomacy. I aim to investigate China's foreign policy approach to environmental politics and examine how this influences Beijing’s relations with developed and developing countries. My research is funded by the ESRC Grand Union DTP. 

Before joining Oxford’s DPIR, I obtained a BSc in International Relations at LSE with First Class Honours and received the Coral Bell Prize for the best degree performance overall. My undergraduate dissertation examines normative contestation and competing leadership among China, the European Union, and the United States during the 2009 Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change (COP15). I also completed an MSc in Environmental Policy and Regulation at the Geography and Environment Department at LSE, during which I researched the effectiveness of private environmental standards and how big technology companies address the concept of environmental sustainability in their corporate reports. 

I have interned with several think tanks, including the Green Belt and Road Initiative Research Team at the International Insititute of Green Finance (IIGF), the Canadian Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, and the Center for China and Globalization. My recent research with IIGF examines China’s potential to launch debt-to-nature swaps with heavily indebted African countries. I have also worked with private corporations regarding green finance and ESG (environment, social, governance) policies.

Research Interests

Chinese Foreign Policy 

Global Environmental Politics 

Languages 

Mandarin Chinese (Native) 

English (Native) 

Spanish (B1)