Jane Perlez is a long time foreign correspondent for ''
The New York Times''. She served as Beijing Bureau Chief in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
until 2019, where she wrote about China's role in the world, and the competition between the United States and China, particularly in Asia. Perlez arrived in Beijing in February 2012, and left in 2019.
Perlez won the
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
in 2009 for coverage of the war against the
Taliban and
al Qaeda
Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...
in Pakistan and Afghanistan, a lead member of the group of New York Times reporters included in the prize for international reporting that year.
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Early life
Born in
London, Perlez grew up in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, and graduated from the
University of Sydney. In 1967, she traveled to China with a group of Australian students who went for a vacation but ended up spending three weeks in the middle of the
Cultural Revolution. She got her first taste of the United States during an
American Field Service scholarship in the mid-60s, and after three years in her first journalism job - at ''
The Australian'' newspaper - she left Australia for New York in 1972. There she joined ''
The New York Post'' to cover politics, leaving when Rupert Murdoch bought the newspaper in 1977. She worked briefly at the ''
SoHo Weekly News'', writing a media and political column, and then for a year-long stint, joined ''
The New York Daily News''. She began her career at ''The New York Times'' in 1981.
Career
At the start of her career as a foreign correspondent, Perlez was a Pulitzer finalist for coverage of the famine in Somalia, and the dispatch of American forces.
Perlez served as bureau chief in
Nairobi, Kenya from 1988 to 1992 when civil wars were raging in
Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
,
Ethiopia and
Somalia. In 1993, she became bureau chief in
Warsaw, Poland
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-cen ...
, writing about the emergence of
Central Europe from grip of the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
. In 1996, she moved to
Vienna, a base for covering the Serbian leader,
Slobodan Milosevic, and his aggression against Kosovo. As Chief Diplomatic Correspondent based in Washington, Perlez traveled with Secretary of State,
Madeleine K. Albright
Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 64th United States secretary of state from 1997 to 2001. A member of the Democratic ...
, to Asia, Europe and Africa, and covered Secretary Colin Powell during his first year in the job. In 2002, she moved to
Jakarta, Indonesia
Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
, where she first noted the rise of China and its impact on Southeast Asia, a series of articles that were among the first to document China's increasing influence in the region. For a series of articles on gold mining in Indonesia and in Peru, and the deleterious impact of the mining on local communities, she won the Overseas Press Club award for
environmental reporting.
During four years based in Islamabad, Pakistan, Perlez wrote about the rising tensions between the United States and Pakistan, and the deep underlying differences between the two countries that were officially allies in the war on terror. Her articles included reporting on the
Inter Services Intelligence and the Pakistani army, as well as on the Taliban, and their ability to strike at the core of Pakistan's institutions. Several articles pin pointed the involvement of the Pakistani army and intelligence service in extra judicial killings, including the murder of a Pakistani journalist in 2011. During her seven years in Beijing, Perlez covered Xi Jinping's growing power at home and abroad. Her stories for the New York Times included coverage of Xi's visit to the United States in 2015; his creation of the
Belt and Road Initiative
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, or B&R), formerly known as One Belt One Road ( zh, link=no, 一带一路) or OBOR for short, is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the Chinese government in 2013 to invest in nearly 150 ...
; the program MADE IN CHINA 2025; and AAIB. She hosted a podcast about Xi's rise for the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University. In 2022, she hosted a podcast series called The Great Wager,
about how Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger made friends with China 50 years ago, and how it's all falling apart. The podcast will also air on NPR's
Here and Now (Boston) in February.
References
External links
''The New York Times'' - articles by Jane Perlez*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perlez, Jane
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
The New York Times writers
English emigrants to Australia
American newspaper reporters and correspondents
Australian emigrants to the United States
Australian expatriates in Pakistan
University of Sydney alumni
English emigrants to the United States
American expatriates in China