Tom Clifford is an Irish journalist, currently based in Beijing.
During his three-decade career, he has covered the fall of Marcos, the invasion and liberation of Kuwait, South Africa before Mandela became president, the Hong Kong handover, spent time, as a non-embedded journalist, in Iraq and freelanced in South America.
He has worked in newspapers in Britain, the Middle East, South Africa, Hong Kong, Lebanon, Tokyo, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Prague and Beijing. Articles by Tom have appeared in the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Gulf News, The National, The Scotsman, Japan Times, the South China Morning Post, The Prague Post, and many other publications across the globe.
Mr. Cliffod has traveled extensively throughout China and witnessed the rapid changes taking place not just in the coastal cities, but deep inland as the country emerges, with all the problems and opportunities this entails, into a global economic power. He also spent several years in Japan.
For all of China's active global summitry, the most complex diplomatic exercise is entirely domestic – the CCP's Party Congress, held every five years.
