Charlie Lyons Jones was a Researcher in the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Defence and Strategy Program until early 2021, where he assesses developments in the Chinese military. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Charlie has interned at the Australian Trade and Investment Commission in Beijing and at the Lowy Institute in Sydney. Charlie's commentary has featured in publications such as The Interpreter, The Strategist and The Diplomat, and has been cited in The Economist.

Before joining ASPI, Charlie was reading for an MSc at the University of Oxford, where he won the Contemporary China Studies Scholarship at the School of Global and Area Studies. At Oxford, Charlie was a member of St Antony’s College and wrote a dissertation on the influence of Communist Party ideology on naval doctrine under Xi Jinping. Charlie holds a BA from the University of Melbourne and has studied abroad at Peking University, Fudan University and National Taiwan University.