Peter Cai is a former Nonresident Fellow of the Lowy Institute, and was Director of Australia-China relations at the Lowy Institute in 2021. Peter led the Institute’s China work in 2016, and is the author of the 2017 Lowy Institute Analysis Understanding China’s Belt And Road Initiative, which has become one of the world’s most consulted and popular pieces of research on the BRI.

Peter’s deep expertise has been honed through his diverse experiences in journalism, government, policy analysis and business. Most recently, Peter was Group Chief Advisor with Virgin Australia. He has worked at Treasury in the Foreign Investment Review Board Secretariat, focusing on state-owned enterprises and sovereign wealth fund investment policy. He has been a journalist with The Australian, Business Spectator, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, covering business and economic news. Peter has a master’s degree from Oxford University and undergraduate degrees from the University of Adelaide.