our team

senior team

Philippa Jones,  founding partner, managing editor

A regulatory and trade policy specialist, Philippa set up CHINA POLICY in Beijing in 2011. Supported by a team of some 15 analysts, she advises public, private and non-profit clients across the company’s sectoral coverage, from macroeconomy through ag, scitech and energy to education and health. She bases her practice on a long-term, wide-angle vision of Beijing's policy trajectory, bringing cross-sectoral synthesis to emerging issues. She also leads the European Commission's PRC legislative and regulatory monitoring project, EUCLERA, a position she has held since 2015. After 20 years in Beijing, Philippa returned to Australia at the outset of COVID. 

From 2004 to 2009, Philippa was a senior advisor at the EU-China Trade Project (EUCTP) in Beijing. At the time, the project was the EU’s largest trade-related technical assistance program globally. Philippa led the agriculture, quarantine, quality, and standards programs, overseeing standards issues across all sectors with a focus on risk and safety. As an expert witness, she has been on the winning side in several agricultural trade cases.

Before her tenure at the EUCTP, Philippa was a member of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. From 1999 to 2003, she served as a trade policy specialist at Beijing’s Australian Embassy, a time of regulatory watershed in the PRC. 

Philippa holds an honours degree in Chinese and economics from the University of Oxford.

 

David Kelly, founding partner, senior associate

David is a founding partner at China Policy. He set up the framework that defines the company approach: not only does he believe in exploring and analysing policy issues but also in investigating the people and agencies that drive them. The company continues to leverage the competency of the PRC policy community’ despite the ideological settings that we must navigate.

David’s current focus is on the global impact of PRC domestic policy settings, not least the ‘game of interests’—Beijing’s code for the ever-shifting tug-of-war between state and market, centre and region, city and hinterland, Party and people. 

Taking a PhD in Chinese history from Sydney University, David held a Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Chicago. He has taught at the University of New South Wales and Peking University, holding research positions at the Australian National University and The National University of Singapore. Notable publications include Marxism in the Post-Mao Era with Bill Brugger (Stanford U.P., 1991) and Asian Freedoms, co-edited with Anthony Reid (Cambridge U.P., 1996), plus scores of academic papers.

 

Erlend Ek, research strategy and energy lead

 
Erlend’s focus is on the macro-level synthesis of economic and social policies, particularly in the foundational sectors of energy, industry, agriculture, and trade—bedrocks of the political economy. Decoding the intricate interplay between resource allocation and societal needs, he navigates the dynamics between growth and equity, development and sustainability. Central to his analysis is the exploration of the social contract and institutional setups both domestically and internationally, examining how these frameworks shape economic outcomes.

 

our analysts include

 
 

Alex Wong, analyst macroeconomy and trade

 
Alex focuses on the PRC’s external economic engagement, especially on how the country is ratcheting up trade and investment measures to serve its industry and economy against intensifying geopolitics and trade frictions. He follows policy trends in this regard and unpacks Beijing’s moves in realigning its trade flows–not least via diversifying trade with partners and re-negotiating new trade rules. Alex holds an MA from the Geneva Graduate Institute where he researched WTO affairs and international organisations.

 

Selena Guo, analyst social policy 

 
Selena brings experience in journalism and policy consulting to our team. She focuses on China’s social policy, especially the intersection between education, healthcare, and technology and how they intertwine to respond to China’s demographic shift and other prominent issues regarding social justice and gender equality. In this role, she investigates how the PRC’s increasing focus on technology-driven growth polarises employment opportunities, drives development of the silver economy, and reshapes educational priorities. Selena is a recipient of the Schwarzman Scholarship where she researched China’s foreign relations at Tsinghua University. 

partnerships

Brodie Paul, partnerships director

With over two decades living in the PRC Brodie brings on-the-ground China business experience to our client partnership team.

Brodie is responsible for our sub-national government and industry association practice. CHINA POLICY’S approach excels at providing the wide-ranging PRC coverage—from macro economy and agriculture, to hydrogen policy and environment, to health and education etc— critical to informed engagement by the public sector and large organisations. Helping them up-skill their understanding of current PRC policy, he guides them on the best use of CHINA POLICY content and how to link the dots between PRC policy and its local impact. 

Growing up in Hong Kong, Brodie studied in the US and Taiwan before winning a Princeton University fellowship to Dalian University of Technology, finishing his studies at Fudan University, and working in business for over a decade in logistics and finance. On returning to Australia he brought his Shanghai experience to the Queensland State Government’s Greater China Desk following with a stint in private practice advising publicly listed companies on PRC media and regulations.