Ben Hillman is Director of the Australian Centre on China in the World (CIW) and Editor of The China Journal - a cutting-edge source of scholarship, information and analysis about China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong that is ranked No.1 globally for Area Studies and has a Journal Citation Indicator Score of 4.43.

Ben's research examines (i) politics, public policy and public administration in China, and (ii) policies and mechanisms for promoting political inclusion and safeguarding minority rights. Ben is the author or editor of eight books on China, including Patronage and Power (Stanford University Press, 2014), Ethnic Conflict and Protest in Tibet and Xinjiang (Columbia University Press, 2016), Political and Social Control in China (ANU Press, 2024), and The Communist Party of China (Cambridge University Press, 2025).

Ben is Honorary Fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analsyis, Program Director of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government's China Reciprocal Program, and Chair of the International Consortium of China Studies Centres.

Ben convenes the largest China in-country study program at ANU: the Chinese Language and Rural China Study Tour, which is funded by the Australian Government's New Colombo Plan. He is also founding Director of the CIW China Studies Fellowship program, which is supported by the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations.