Mingke Ma is a Swire Scholar reading DPhil Area Studies (China) at St Antony’s College. He obtained an MPhil in Global and Area Studies (Distinction) from Oxford and a BA in Politics and International Relations (First Class Honours) from SOAS University of London. He is interested in the role of the state in shaping industrial development across time and space.
DPhil Topic
My DPhil research is situated at the intersection of Modern Chinese History and Political Economy of Development. My project aims to examine the geopolitical, institutional and temporal dynamics behind the indigenous industrial transformation of Northeast China during the warlord rule of the Fengtian Clique (1918-1931). My thesis discusses how this militarist regime attempted to construct elite coalition with other social forces and build durable state institutions; negotiated development space with foreign geopolitical powers; financed indigenous entrepreneurship through agricultural extraction and bank credit; and localised global technological advances.
