China Matters Team

Team

• Michael Clifton - CEO
  

  Michael Clifton

  Staff

  Michael assumed the role of CEO of China Matters in March 2020. He has enjoyed a diverse and varied career including almost 20 years in trade and defence appointments across Asia and the Middle East.

  A graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, Michael served in the Australian Army for 20 years before retiring at the rank of lieutenant colonel. He subsequently served a further 20 years with the Australian Trade and Investment Commission until his retirement from the Australian Public Service in December 2018. He is President of the Australia-China Business Council, NSW.

  Michael’s career highlights include almost six years as head of the Australian Trade and Investment Commission’s network in China and assignments in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Osaka.  He has served as a Departmental Liaison Officer and adviser to the Minister for Trade, and Chief of Staff to a senior Cabinet Minister.

  Michael speaks Chinese and Japanese, and holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of New South Wales.

• Dirk van der Kley - Program Director - Policy Research
  

  Dirk van der Kley

  Staff

  Dirk is Program Director – Policy Research at China Matters. His most recent work has been at the Australian National University, where his doctoral thesis focussed on PRC economic statecraft. He recently returned from two years’ fieldwork in China and Central Asia on an Endeavour Scholarship. Previously Dirk worked as a Research Associate at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. Dirk is fluent in Mandarin. He wrote his Honours thesis at University of Sydney in Chinese.

• Susan Nguyen - Communications and Events Manager
  

  Susan Nguyen

  Staff

  Susan is the Communications and Events Manager at China Matters. Prior to her role at China Matters, she spent eight  years in the aviation industry at the Sydney based CAPA-Centre for Aviation, initially as Managing Editor of the airline strategy magazine Airline Leader, and latterly as Head of Events, where she launched high level conferences in Asia, Europe and the US. Susan graduated with distinction from the University of Sydney with a BA (Media and Communications). During her final year, she was awarded an international fellowship by the Australia-Korea Foundation within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

• Gabrielle Burgess - Policy Assistant
  

  Gabrielle Burgess

  Staff

  Gabrielle is a Policy Assistant at China Matters. She is also the Co-founding Director of the Culture Bridge Institute, a think tank examining cross-cultural issues in Australia. Previously, Gabrielle was a research assistant at UN Women in Beijing and has interned with UNHCR’s legal protection team and with the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Beijing. She has completed a year-long exchange at Peking University studying Chinese foreign policy and Mandarin language courses. Gabrielle holds a Bachelor of Laws with Honours and Bachelor of Asia-Pacific Studies from the Australian National University.

• Baopu He - Junior Fellow
  

  Baopu He

  Junior Fellow

  Baopu He is a fifth year student at the University of Sydney studying a Bachelor of Arts, where he majored in Japanese, and a Bachelor of Laws. Besides English and Mandarin, Baopu also has full professional proficiency in Japanese, having spent a year studying Japanese literature, language and politics at Waseda University before joining China Matters. He has previously worked as an editor at Honi Soit, the University of Sydney’s student newspaper, and for Sydney Speaks, an Australian Research Council project conducted by the ANU on multiculturalism and diversity in Australian English.

• Brian Xu - Junior Fellow
  

  Brian Xu

  Junior Fellow

  Brian is finishing a Bachelor of Engineering and a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Sydney, majoring in Aeronautical Engineering and Economics. He is a fluent Mandarin speaker, having studied in Tianjin and Beijing for six years, and has previously worked as a translator for the Chinese science and technology publication Guokr, as a GRE tutor for Chinese students, and as a consulting engineer. Brian developed his interest in international and China affairs through Model United Nations, and his main areas of interest are China’s military development and defence policy.