John Garnaut

John Garnaut is founder of Garnaut Global, where he assists clients to navigate the opaque world of Chinese elite politics and anticipate China’s impact on the international investment landscape.

John leads a team of specialist researchers who mine open-source Chinese-language information to map Chinese Communist Party organisation, explain ideology, track China’s expanding technology footprint, and help clients spot opportunities and risks. John also leads foreign interference and espionage risk reviews and enhanced due diligence services for institutions ranging from critical infrastructure providers to universities and financial institutions.

John was Senior Advisor to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (2016) and Principal Advisor (International) at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (2017), where he led the Australian Government’s interagency analysis and policy response to foreign interference in Australian politics, business and academia.

He was previously China correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald. In that role, according to former Financial Timescorrespondent Richard McGregor: “Mr Garnaut  has managed to systematically penetrate the deep secrecy surrounding China’s ruling families. His work as a journalist was the envy of every foreign intelligence officer as he has charted the princelings’ family and personal ties, their links to the military, their growing wealth, and, in endless, bitter factional fights, their rise and their fall.”

John is the author of The Rise and Fall of the House of Bo. He was previously a financial services lawyer at Hall & Wilcox. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.