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01.04.2026 07:35

The “Learning Empire:” Constructor University to lead €5M research effort into China's growing global influence

Adrian Chalifour Corporate Communications
Constructor University

While American hegemony is increasingly strained by fractious foreign policy and growing economic uncertainty, is China quietly adapting a new approach to empire, one built not through territorial acquisition, but through growing influence and control of critical infrastructure, supply chains, financial systems and raw materials? This is the driving question behind “Learning Empire,” a new joint research initiative led by Constructor University Professor Dr. Tobias ten Brink that will bring eight leading German universities together to study how China is building a new empire for the 21st century.

The four-year project has been approved to receive approximately €5 million in funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG), making it one of the largest grants in Constructor University’s 25-year history and its first time leading a DFG-funded project of this magnitude.

The new DFG Research Unit, named "Learning Empire: Autonomy, Dependence, and China's Emerging Imperial Practices," consists of eight projects that investigate the different ways in which China has begun asserting greater influence and control in the international order over the past decade. From wresting control of high-tech infrastructure and value chains like semiconductors and AI, to expanding resource extraction efforts in the global south, Prof. ten Brink and his colleagues hypothesize that China under Xi Jinping has shifted away from its tradition of “keeping a low profile” on the world stage.

“While we are not witnessing a ‘grand strategy’ for global supremacy, China seems to be learning the governance techniques necessary for the country to emerge as an empire,” said Prof. ten Brink, whose own project focuses on China’s growing control along green value chains. “We’re seeing Chinese political leaders and business elites go beyond controlled integration into the established international order of the American-led West, and instead learning how to build Sinocentric hierarchies.”

“Learning Empire” will be the largest current effort in Germany to study China’s evolving role as a major power, coming at a pivotal time in global politics when America and its allies appear less willing or able to maintain the hegemony they established at the end of the Cold War. “In this climate, where no power is able or willing to comprehensively manage economic and political affairs on a global scale, we can reasonably expect to see the rise of new empires and zones of influence,” said Prof. ten Brink.

He and his colleagues intend to fill what they see as a critical gap in current European understanding and analysis of China’s recent global practices, one that is imperative to shaping public discourse and policy around Europe’s relations with China moving forward. “

“These new trends have barely been researched,” Prof. ten Brink explained. “Multidisciplinary research is urgently needed to better understand the practices of a country whose economic and technological footprint, political influence and resource transfer activities have grown tremendously since the 2010s. This new Research Unit is the largest of its kind in Germany and will go a long way to help fill this gap.”

The DFG’s approval of "Learning Empire” was a pivotal achievement for Constructor University’s School of Business, Decision & Social Sciences. In addition to being one of the largest funding awards in the school’s history, it also marks the first time that Constructor University has been selected to lead a DFG Research Unit.

"Securing DFG funding and having the opportunity to lead this Research Unit are major milestones for our School of Business, Social and Decision Sciences and Constructor University as a whole," said Dr. Frazer Cairns, Provost of Constructor University. "Our ability to lead a research initiative of this magnitude with some of Germany's top universities demonstrates the expertise and interdisciplinary strength present in our university."

The Research Unit program is one of the DFG’s most substantial funding mechanisms, designed to enable “close collaborative alliances consisting of several outstanding researchers” through support that “goes well beyond what is possible under individual grants.” Currently, only a handful of such units exist for the field of political science across Germany, and Prof. ten Brink’s group is the only one focused specifically on China.

As Speaker, Prof. ten Brink and Constructor University will act as the hub of the project, providing overall project coordination, hosting workshops and conferences, managing public engagement and facilitating collaboration among the project teams. The university will receive approximately €1.4 million of the total funding for coordination and its own research project.

“It is a great honor to receive this grant, and a great achievement for the social sciences in Bremen more generally,” said Prof. ten Brink, who was quick to acknowledge the University of Bremen’s role in the project, both as a project leader and through the support of their data service center Qualiservice. “Qualiservice has extensive experience in archiving and sharing data from research, and guarantees the highest safety standards for data protection.."

Following the initial four-year term, the Research Unit may receive approval for an additional four years. The participating institutions in the “Learning Empire” are:
- Constructor University
- University of Bremen
- University of Bonn
- University of Tübingen
- Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg
- Goethe University Frankfurt
- Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin
- German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), Berlin

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Weitere Informationen:

https://learning-empire.com/the-project/ - Project website

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Professor of Chinese Economy and Society Tobias ten Brink.
Quelle: Constructor University

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