About me

Welcome to my page!

I am a Ph.D. candidate at the Deparment of Political Science, Washington University in St. Louis (WashU). I am the manager of the Political Data Science Lab.

I study authoritarian politics and public opinion on foreign policy with a regional focus on China. My dissertation looks at how authoritarian regimes leverage information manipulation to secure citizens’ voluntary compliance with the state through popular culture. In line with this agenda, I also study how the development of state capacity affects political trust. Another set of my reseach focuses on how rival states leverage cultural diplomacy to foster support for international cooperation.

Prior to my PhD journey, I enrolled in a Double Degree Program initiated and fully funded by the Bai Xian Asia Insitute (BXAI), where I obtained my Bachelor of Science in Global China Studies (GCS) from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and Bachelor of Art in Economics from Waseda University in 2020.

Please feel free to reach me at weiye.deng@wustl.edu.