Graeme Smith
Dr Graeme Smith
Qualifications
BSc Hons, PhD (Sydney); BA Hons (UNSW), PhD (ANU)
Graeme Smith is a fellow at the Australian National University’s Department of Pacific Affairs. He was awarded his PhD in 2008, for work that explored the motivations of China’s local officials as they attempted to implement an agricultural extension program in rural Anhui. His current research explores China’s investment, migration, military engagement, technology and aid in the Asia Pacific, with projects in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji, Timor Leste, Thailand and Vietnam. He has a particular focus on how Chinese infrastructure contractors adapt to and influence the business and political environment in Pacific Island states. He has an emerging research stream on the geopolitics of PRC private Internet companies as they look to invest in the region, including TenCent’s role in the Australian election, Baidu’s efforts to expand into Southeast Asia and Huawei and ZTE’s lobbying efforts in the Pacific.
Graeme teaches The Politics of China in the Coral Bell School and hosts the Little Red Podcast with former NPR and BBC journalist Louisa Lim. The show examines China beyond the Beijing beltway, is the winner of the 2018 Podcast of the Year in the News & Current Affairs Category and regularly features in the iTunes charts.
Department of Pacific Affairs and University of Hawaii take lead on new ‘China in the Pacific’ volume
For nearly a year the Department of Pacific Affairs’ (DPA) Dr Graeme Smith has been collaborating with the University of Hawaii’s Professor Terrence Wesley-Smith on a new book looking at the influe
