Ryan Manuel’s most recent work is a book called How to Rule in China, which created large databases of Chinese government and Party documentation and other primary source material in order to analyze how rules are made and followed in various parts of the Chinese political system. He was previously a Senior China Analyst with the Australian government (where he wrote for the Prime Minister and the National Security Committee) and a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group. He holds a doctorate from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

He used his AsiaGlobal Fellowship to examine how the Chinese leadership uses official media to signal preferences regarding economic growth.