Researching Ian Johnson

Aged 17, Johnson made his first-class cricket debut for Victoria in the 1935–36 season but did not establish a permanent place in the team until 1939–40. His career was interrupted by the Second World War; he served with the Royal Australian Air Force as a pilot and later as a flight instructor. He returned to cricket after his discharge and was selected to tour New Zealand with the Australian team, making his Test debut. Johnson was part of Don Bradman's Invincibles team; undefeated on tour in England in 1948. He was a regular member of the national side until poor form saw him left out of the Australian squad for the 1953 tour of England.

Johnson was appointed Australian captain following Lindsay Hassett's retirement. The appointment was not universally popular; some teammates and supporters felt Keith Miller had a better claim to the position. In his first series as captain, Australia was defeated by a strong English team on home soil. The tour of the West Indies that followed was a cricketing and diplomatic triumph for Johnson. Australia won the Test series comfortably and Johnson's astute public relations skills helped avoid a repeat of the crowd disturbances that had marred England's visit to the islands 12 months before. However, his Australian team then went on to lose the 1956 Ashes series in England. Johnson's Test career ended with Australia's first Test tour of the Indian subcontinent, which occurred during the voyage back to Australia. Australia lost the one-off Test against Pakistan, the first between the two nations, before claiming the series against India. On his return to Australia, he retired from all forms of cricket at age 39.

After retirement, Johnson worked for a time as a sports commentator, including covering the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. In 1957 he was appointed Secretary of the Melbourne Cricket Club, one of the most prestigious positions in Australian sport. He would remain in the role for 26 years, overseeing the development of the Melbourne Cricket Ground and playing a key role in the organisation of the Centenary Test in 1977. In 1956 he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to cricket; this was twice upgraded: to OBE in 1977 and to CBE in 1982.

Johnson writes regularly for The New York Review of Books and The New York Times, and gives speeches on China in Europe and North America.

He also teaches university courses at The Beijing Center for Chinese Studies, is a past associate editor of The Journal of Asian Studies.

Johnson won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. His reporting from China was also honored in 2001 by the Overseas Press Club and the Society of Professional Journalists. In 2017 he won Stanford University's Shorenstein Prize for his body of work covering Asia. In 2019 he won the American Academy of Religion's "best in-depth newswriting" award.

In 2020, Johnson's journalist visa was canceled amid US-China tensions over trade and the COVID-19 epidemic, and he left China.