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Lisa Visentin

Lisa Visentin

Lisa Visentin is the North Asia correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age based in Beijing. She was previously a federal political correspondent based in Canberra.

Carissa Smith was adopted from South Korea as a baby and has embarked on a search for her birth parents.

‘Difficult questions’ need answering: Adoptees hope for closure with probe into South Korean program

A former magistrate will the lead the country’s first-ever probe into alleged failures in the Australian-South Korean adoption program.

  • Lisa Visentin

Latest

Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ahead of their talks in Pyongyang on Monday. No independent journalists were given access to cover the event.

Xi Jinping is feted in Pyongyang as Kim Jong-un swivels to Moscow

In a rare visit to Pyongyang, Xi and Kim talked up China-North Korean ties, even as Kim draws closer to Vladimir Putin.

  • Lisa Visentin
Australian lawyer Samuel Monkivitch has become infamous on Hong Kong social media.

Australian lawyer cops fine, suspended sentence for Hong Kong dine-and-dash spree

Samuel Monkivitch gained a reputation for running away from bills at Hong Kong’s five-star hotels as well as smaller restaurants.

  • Lisa Visentin and Jessie Pang
Over the past decade, the Chinese government has expanded its massive surveillance network.

The mysterious database that provides clues to China’s foreign surveillance

The discovery of an unsecured Chinese policing dashboard paints a picture of how authorities track foreign journalists and other people of interest.

  • Lisa Visentin
Thousands of people attend a candlelight vigil for victims of the Chinese government’s brutal military crackdown in Hong Kong in 2019. The last time it was allowed to take place.

How do you remember a massacre that’s been scrubbed from the history books? Very carefully

More than 100,000 people used to cram into a Hong Kong park to remember the Tiananmen massacre. This year, some found a defiant way to continue their vigil.

  • Lisa Visentin and Jessie Pang
Australia will now buy only second-hand submarines from the US, rather than a mix of new and old submarines.

Marles points to savings after US downgrades AUKUS sub to second-hand version

Australia was expected to buy a mix of new and used submarines from the US, but now the vessels will all be used boats.

  • Matthew Knott and Lisa Visentin
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Mu Jie, 49, makes little more than the equivalent of $1.20 per order as a driver for instant grocery delivery platform Xiaoxiang (Little Elephant) in Beijing.

Working from sun up to sun down, China’s delivery drivers caught in a price war

China’s army of food delivery drivers are paying the price as tech giants wage war for control over the lucrative market.

  • Lisa Visentin
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth praised Australia for “stepping up” in its defence spending and collaboration with the US in a speech to the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore.

Hegseth praises Australia for ‘stepping up’ as he shifts tone on China

While the US defence secretary struck a more conciliatory tone on China, Defence Minister Richard Marles said the seabed was “becoming a battlefield”.

  • Lisa Visentin
Don Farrell

Wedged between China and the US, Australia’s salesman-in-chief performs delicate balancing act

Australia, as a middle power, has found itself in between two capricious giants whose leaders have proven themselves willing to weaponise trade for their own ends.

  • Lisa Visentin
Russia China

Vladimir Putin flies in to meet Xi Jinping, but there’s only one man calling the shots

The Russian leader has been welcomed to Beijing with the same red carpet pomp bestowed on Trump days earlier. But while Putin and Xi share an unmatchable bromance, the US-China relationship matters more to Beijing.

  • Lisa Visentin