Falk Hartig is a post-doctoral researcher at Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany. His research focuses on public diplomacy, international political communication, and issues of external perception. He holds a MA in Sinology and Journalism from the University of Leipzig and a PhD in Media and Communication from Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. He has a decade of work experience in journalism. He was deputy chief editor of Cultural Exchange, Germany’s leading magazine for international relations and cultural exchange and was a visiting fellow at Xinhua News Agency in Beijing He has written a book about the Communist Party of China (in German) and is the author of Chinese Public Diplomacy: The Rise of the Confucius Institute, published by Routledge.