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Daniel Fu

PhD candidate
Department of International Relations

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About

About

Daniel Fu is a PhD candidate at the Department of International Relations at LSE, where he also serves as Coordinator of the China Foresight Initiative at LSE IDEAS.

His research examines how US export controls shape Chinese policy and firm behaviour, with a broader focus on international political economy, artificial intelligence, and China’s science and technology strategy. His work is funded by the Stonex PhD Scholarship.

Previously, he spent three years as a Pre-Doctoral Research Associate at Harvard Business School, where he wrote case studies on Chinese companies at the frontier of technological innovation. He was also a Seasonal Fellow at GovAI and the editor of the Party Watch Initiative at the Center for Advanced China Research. He is currently a SPAR Research Fellow. Daniel is also co-authoring with Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor William C Kirby the forthcoming book Why Are We So Afraid of China?, on Chinese innovation and US-China competition.

His research and analysis have been published by Harvard Business Publishing, the Asia Society Policy Institute, the Jamestown Foundation, Pacific Forum, and The Diplomat. He has presented his research at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China, and his work and commentary have been featured in The New York Times, The Straits Times, and Le Monde. Daniel holds an MA in Political Science from Columbia University, where he specialized in international relations, and a BA in Political Science from Boston College.

Research topic

The Limits of Weaponized Interdependence

Daniel's research interests lie at the intersection of international political economy, great power competition, and emerging technologies, with a particular focus on economic statecraft and weaponized interdependence. He examines how states employ export controls and technological restrictions to constrain geopolitical rivals, and how targeted states adapt through indigenous innovation, technological substitution, and international diversification.

His doctoral research adopts a comparative historical approach, examining British–American technological competition in the late nineteenth century, British and French restrictions on Israel in the 1960s, US export controls against India and Turkey in the 1970s, and contemporary US export controls against China and China's use of rare earth export restrictions. Through these cases, he investigates the conditions under which technology denial and export controls succeed, fail, or generated unintended consequences that undermine their original strategic objectives.

Academic supervisors

John Minnich

Jeff Chwieroth

Research cluster affiliation

International Political Economy research cluster

Expertise

Broader research interests include US–China strategic competition, artificial intelligence governance, semiconductor supply chains, China's technological development, and the international expansion of Chinese technology firms.

Daniel Fu is funded by the Stonex PhD Scholarship