Rowan Callick: China Below the Radar and Down Under

This video is also available on the USCI YouTube Channel.

Rowan Callick discussed his experience covering President Hu Jintao and Australia’s relationship with China, but focused most of his attention on unsung heros, non-governmental organizations led by determined individuals who are addressing profoundly felt Chinese social needs.

Among the efforts Callick profiled was Zhang Shuqin’s campaign to provide for the children of incarcerated parents. A USC/Communication University of China student documentary offered a glimpse of one of the NGO’s operations on the outskirts of Beijing. Click here to see it.

*****

Callick, The Australian’s Asia-Pacific editor, was the newspaper’s Beijing-based China correspondent for three years until returning to Melbourne at the start of 2009. He grew up in England, graduating with a BA Honours from Exeter University. He worked for a daily newspaper in the north east before moving to Papua New Guinea, where he became general manager of a locally owned publishing, printing and retail group. In 1987 he came to Australia, working for almost 20 years for The Australian Financial Review, including as Hong Kong-based China correspondent. From 1990-1992 he was a senior writer with Time magazine. He was a member of the National Advisory Council on Aid Policy from 1994-96, a board member of the Australia Indonesia Institute from 2001-2006, and a member of the Foreign Minister`s Foreign Affairs Council from 2003-2006. His book "Comrades & Capitalists: Hong Kong Since the Handover" was published by the University of NSW Press in 1998. He won the Graham Perkin Award for Journalist of the Year for 1995, and two Walkley Awards, for Asia-Pacific coverage, for 1997 and 2007.