Understanding Statecraft, Strategy, and the Free World’s Future.
Andrew J. Phelan
China Strategist & Commentator
Andrew Phelan’s China journey began 40 years ago with language classes before his first trip to China in 1988. He was one of four graduates chosen nationally by then Australia China Council for China skills training ship under DFAT in 1992. He has worked in PR China, Hong Kong the UK and Australia in the former part of his career in consumer goods and the latter in the med tech and healthcare sector including 15 years based in Singapore covering the Asia Pacific for European and US multinationals like Gore and GE.
Unlike most China academics, journalists and those from a national security background, Andrew brings insights from what he likes to call, ‘the trenches of commerce’ in China. US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth stated that he was ‘about tanks not trade’ PRC Inc is very much about both as concepts like civil military fusion and unrestricted warfare and Beijing’s broader state craft illustrate.
The PRC represents a very different operating system to that of the free world. It has become a surveillance and censorship state, with no rule of law or independent judiciary. It’s become increasingly totalitarian and while at a macro level the CCP Party State faces several real headwinds, it’s becoming more, not less powerful. Little by little we are witnessing it’s imperial ambitions unfold as it’s military strength increases and as it seeks to export its system wherever possible.
This website is called the China Challenge for a reason. It’s as much about how we, ‘Team Freedom’, organise ourselves as it is about the CCP Party State.
The scale and speed of the challenge is unprecedented. Can we in the democratic world rise to meet this challenge? That in my opinion is THE question of our time. A question that will define the 21st century.
That said you would not know this if you were relying on the six o’clock news. This China Challenge is under reported and understood and that brings me to my mission. To talk about this in as Professor John Fitzgerald the highly respected Sinologist described on witnessing my endeavours in a way that is ‘informed but informal’. My mission is to take the conversation from the think tanks to the general public. Wish me luck, I need your support!
Over the last 5 years Andrew has channelled his China watching and analysis into frequent media appearances. In Australia he is an occasional contributor on Sky News/News 24 and he has appeared on 60 Minutes, ABC TV and radio and commercial radio as well as multiple appearances across various programs in the US, UK and Taiwan. In addition, over the last 18 months Andrew has taken his “China Challenge” presentation to the public via a variety of public speaking engagements.
Andrew holds a Bachelor of Arts (Chinese) Bachelor of Business (Economics and Marketing) Double Degree from Deakin University, a Graduate Diploma from the Johns Hopkins University Nanjing University School of Advanced International Studies, Nanjing, China and a Graduate Diplomat of Management from the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM), University of Sydney, University of New South Wales.
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