Denghua Zhang is a research fellow at ANU DPA. He completed his PhD program on Chinese foreign aid and trilateral aid cooperation at ANU.

His research mainly focuses on Chinese foreign policy, foreign aid, and China-Pacific islands relations. He has published extensively on these topics, including recently with Australian Journal of International Affairs, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, Pacific Affairs, The Pacific Review, Third World Quarterly, Asian Journal of Political Science, Journal of Pacific History, The Round Table, Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies and Security Challenges.

His article ‘China’s motives, influence and prospects in Pacific Island countries: views of Chinese scholars’, published by International Relations of the Asia-Pacific in 2023, has been promoted by Oxford University Press as 'High Impact Political Science and International Relations Research'. His article ‘China's influence and local perceptions: the case of Pacific island countries’ won the Boyer prize as the best article of Australian Journal of International Affairs for 2022. His book A Cautious New Approach: China’s Growing Trilateral Aid Cooperation is among the ANU Press’ top ten new releases for 2020.