Clifford Coonan

Beijing Correspondent

For the past decade, Clifford Coonan has been based in Beijing writing for The Irish Times about one of the great stories of transformation the world has ever experienced, the rise of China, and the Asian Century as it unfolds.

A Trinity graduate and long-time Reuters correspondent, he covers everything from the opaque political world of the Communist Party, to the stunning economic advances that have shaken the world, all the while focusing on the stories of individual Chinese and how they cope with enormous change.

To give The Irish Times a unique perspective on the region's big breaking stories, Dubliner Coonan has been detained often by the Chinese police, shot at in Thailand and seen the awesome power of nature in earthquakes, landslides and tsunamis across Asia.