Kerry Brown
Kerry Brown is Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College, London. He recently spoke about his important new book, “The Great Reversal: Britain, China and the 400 Year Contest for Power” (Yale University Press, 2024) with Richard Cullen.
Kerry's recent articles
2 April 2025
No surprises, but strategic circumstance weighs heavily on China’s ‘Two Sessions’
China’s 2025 'Two Sessions' emphasised stability and strategic focus, avoiding major surprises despite the volatile global landscape.
2 October 2023
Rethinking China and the new world order
The world is now experiencing a new era of multilateralism. The Quad (India, US, Japan, Australia) now sits alongside the G20, the G7, and has been joined by AUKUS (Australia, UK, US), and the great new vision of the Indo Pacific. BRICS, around for almost two decades, looks like it might expand to become a gathering for the newly emerging global South. That is before we take on board the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Asia Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) and the collection of other acronyms that increasingly dot across the world.
20 January 2022
Uncertainty ahead: Xi Jinping faces a challenging 2022
After an uncertain year in 2021, the only dependable prediction for China in 2022 is that Xi Jinping will return for a third term in power.
10 October 2021
The AUKUS defence deal is almost wholly symbolic
The AUKUS pact may make strategic sense Australia, after all, needs to seek partnerships. But at present, it's almost wholly symbolic.
28 December 2020
How Chinas state serves the Party (East Asia Forum Dec 22, 2020)
Xi Jinping is a Party man. His first words in November 2012 after being made General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party were about closing the gap between the Party and the people.
7 October 2020
A Sinologist's view on Australia's relations with China
My memory of the time I spent in Australia, while directing the University of Sydney China Studies Centre from 2012 to 2015 was a largely positive and happy one. Looking from the UK, where I am now based, I have to acknowledge a sense of shock and sadness.
15 August 2020
Why the West Needs to Stop its Moralising against China (E-International Relations August 10, 2020)
The great German philosopher Leibniz put it well over three centuries ago. Writing in his `Discourse on the Natural Theology of the Chinese he stated, `I did not want to examine to what extent the manner of worship of the Chinese could be condemned or justified I only wanted to investigate their doctrines.
3 August 2020
The Communist Party of China and the Idea of `Evil' (Oxford Politics Review, April 24 2020)
Labelling an entity like the Communist Party `evil' or bad might work polemically. But it ends up doing a massive disservice to the many Chinese still in China who are not members. Some are deeply opposed to their government. Some are supportive. Some are in between. ... But the idea that they are silent, suppressed, and without agency is profoundly condescending.