Dr. Andrew Law | The Statecraft Institute

Dr. Andrew Law is Senior Lecturer in Town Planning at Newcastle University, UK. His research examines the way in which societies, governments, social movements, sub-cultures, communities and individuals construct their pasts; in exploring these themes he has conducted research on social theory, the history of ideas, historical imaginaries, historical memory, nostalgia, remembering and forgetting, national myths and narratives, the politics of history and the uses and abuses of history and/or the past more broadly. In his career, he has often examined these themes in relation to architecture, townscapes, urban conservation, built heritage, intangible heritage and urban place branding. While his early research explored British/English cases, since 2010 Dr. Andrew has investigated Chinese case studies.

Publications by Dr. Andrew Law

Published on: June 15, 2026Commentary

UK-China relations and the politics of remembering and forgetting the Opium Wars

conflict geopolitics

UK-China relations are complex, and they have undergone several changes under different UK governments and Chinese leaders. From the UK side, UK-China relations have been through ‘golden ages’ particularly under the years of David Cameron, (2010-2020), where it has been suggested that ‘Cameron’s engagement with China was a response to the crisis of the global economy in 2008 and the divergence of the economies of China and the West’.