Professor Kerry Brown

Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London. A sinologist specialising in Chinese history, international relations and politics, he lived in Inner Mongolia from 1994 to 1996 and served at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1998 to 2005, including as First Secretary at the British Embassy in Beijing. He was later Professor of Chinese Politics and Director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, and before that Senior Fellow and Head of the Asia Programme at Chatham House. He is the author of 24 books on modern China, including The Taiwan Story. His new biography, Mao: Power and Contradiction, was published in May.