Linda Jakobson

Linda Jakobson is the founding director, Deputy Chair and CEO of China Matters, an Australian public policy initiative that aims to inject nuance into discussions of China and advance sound China policy. She has been a student of Chinese politics and China’s foreign and security policy for the past three decades. 

She is internationally known for her publications about China’s foreign policy. She is the co author, with Dr Bates Gill, of a China Matters: Getting it right for Australia (Black Inc. March 2017). Her China-related career includes posts as a teacher (at the Shandong Institute of Economics in China), a lecturer (at Hong Kong City University), a foreign correspondent (in Beijing), a visiting professor (at Sydney University), and senior researcher and program director at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), and the Lowy Institute for International Policy. 

She has served as a policy advisor on China-related issues to the president, prime minister, or foreign minister in seven countries. Before moving to Sydney in 2011 Jakobson lived and worked in China for 22 years. She is the author, co-author or co-editor of six books about Chinese and East Asian politics  and society as well as the author of over 100 other publications about Chinese politics and society, China’s foreign and security policy, the Taiwan Straits, China’s science and technology, and China’s Arctic aspirations. Two of her books and one report have received awards. She established China Matters Ltd in 2015. A Mandarin speaker, Jakobson was a Fellow at the Kennedy School at Harvard University in 1990.