Richard McGregor

Senior Fellow for East Asia
Areas of expertise

China’s political system and the workings and structure of the communist party; China’s foreign relations, with an emphasis on ties with Japan, the two Koreas, and Southeast Asia; Australia’s relations with Asia.

Richard McGregor
Biography
Publications
News and media

Richard McGregor is Senior Fellow for East Asia at the Lowy Institute, Australia’s premier foreign policy think tank, in Sydney.

Richard is a former Beijing and Washington bureau chief for the Financial Times and the author of numerous books on East Asia.

His most recent book, Xi Jinping: The Backlash, was published by Penguin Australia as a Lowy Institute Paper in August 2019. His book on Sino-Japanese relations, Asia’s Reckoning: China, Japan and the Fate of U.S. Power in the Pacific Century (Penguin Books, 2017), was called “shrewd and knowing” by the Wall Street Journal and the “best book of the year” by the Literary Review in the United Kingdom. In late 2018, it won the Prime Minister of Australia’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction. His book, The Party (Penguin Books, 2010), on the inner-workings of the Chinese Communist Party, was translated into seven languages and chosen by the Asia Society and Mainichi Shimbun in Japan as their book of the year.

Richard is a Senior Associate (Non-resident) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in the United States. He was also a visiting scholar at the Wilson Center and George Washington University in Washington DC from 2014-2016.

Xi Jinping: The Backlash
Lowy Institute Papers
Xi Jinping: The Backlash
By the author of the acclaimed The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers 
Singapore steers the US-China extremes at Shangri-la
Singapore steers the US-China extremes at Shangri-la
Was Lee Hsien Loong critical of China, giving the stick to America, or perhaps resigned he could please neither?
Countering Hanson's legacy in Asia
Commentary
Countering Hanson's legacy in Asia
For a country which has squandered its soft power over the last decade, Australia needs to grab foreign policy advantages where it finds them. Originally published in the…
Time for Australia's campaigning leaders to debate China?
Commentary
Time for Australia's campaigning leaders to debate China?
Politicians avoid arousing voter concern despite Huawei and South China Sea disputes.  Originally published in Nikkei Asian Review.Richard McGregor
China’s Doghouse Is Smaller Than It Looks
Commentary
China’s Doghouse Is Smaller Than It Looks
Originally published in Bloomberg OpinionRichard McGregor
Can outside pressure shift Beijing?
Commentary
Can outside pressure shift Beijing?
Originally published in Nikkei Asian ReviewRichard McGregor
Four reasons why China supports North Korea
Four reasons why China supports North Korea
China’s policy on the Korean peninsula is based on geopolitical calculus. Its support of North Korea will stay intact.
We need the Five Eyes spy network, but with oversight
Commentary
We need the Five Eyes spy network, but with oversight
Originally published in Sydney Morning Herald Richard McGregor
Why the US should not simply decouple from China without building new partnerships
Commentary
Why the US should not simply decouple from China without building new partnerships
Originally published in South China Morning PostRichard McGregor , Hervé Lemahieu
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