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.

Lowy Institute Conversations: Linda Jaivin on her new book, The Shortest History of China
Podcasts
Lowy Institute Conversations: Linda Jaivin on her new book, The Shortest History of China
In this episode of Lowy Institute Conversations, Richard McGregor, Lowy Institute Senior Fellow, sits down with Linda Jaivin to discuss her new book, The Shortest History of China…
Revealed: China’s plan to wean itself off Australian iron ore
Commentary
Revealed: China’s plan to wean itself off Australian iron ore
For a China determined to punish Australia, the windfall gains delivered to Canberra from surging iron ore prices are intolerable. Originally published in the Australian Financial…
Biden and Xi talk of a clash of civilisations. But the real shared goal is dominance
Commentary
Biden and Xi talk of a clash of civilisations. But the real shared goal is dominance
The US president has challenged the idea that the ‘east is rising, the west declining’. Instead, he insists that America’s day is far from done. Originally published by The…
Is there life after Xi?
Commentary
Is there life after Xi?
The Chinese president has rewritten the post-Mao rules, and the global implications could be profound. Originally published by Inside Story.
Canberra clueless to China’s flexible diplomacy
Commentary
Canberra clueless to China’s flexible diplomacy
Australia insists on viewing Beijing in black and white. But that’s ill-matched with China’s expertise in the grey zone. Originally published in The Australian Financial Review.
Reading the Xi leaves: what’s next for the Chinese President
Commentary
Reading the Xi leaves: what’s next for the Chinese President
If Xi Jinping had followed the rules, he would be stepping down next year. The longer he stays in office without an anointed successor, the greater the risk of a power struggle…
After Xi: Future Scenarios for Leadership Succession in Post-Xi Jinping Era
Analyses
After Xi: Future Scenarios for Leadership Succession in Post-Xi Jinping Era
A Joint Report of the CSIS Freeman Chair in China Studies and the Lowy Institute
China’s Guinea mine is about security, not economics
Commentary
China’s Guinea mine is about security, not economics
Beijing’s investment in a greenfield project in Guinea is intended not so much to slash prices for Chinese steelmakers, but to guarantee the supply of a vital resource by…
Alaska tirade shows China and the US are further apart than ever
Commentary
Alaska tirade shows China and the US are further apart than ever
Beijing pushback a sign of its growing confidence abroad. Originally published in Nikkei Asia.
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