Simon Long is Asia Editor for The Economist based in London and has a reputation as being a leading journalist and commentator on Asia. In particular, following an extended period posted in New Delhi with the newspaper, he is a very well respected writer on India. He is a commentator on Asian economies, particularly on South Asia and on Asian security issues. He is the author of the recent Economist surveys on India over the past few years, the China-India survey in 2005, as well as of surveys on Indonesia and online finance and Hong Kong.

Before becoming Asia Editor for The Economist in November 2006 he was South Asia Bureau Chief for four years based in New Delhi, India. Prior to this, he spent two years working on economist.com, The Economist’s Internet edition. He had returned to London in 1998 to become Finance and Economics editor having been Southeast Asia correspondent based in Bangkok. Before joining The Economist he spent nine years with the BBC in London, Beijing and Hong Kong.

At The Economist, he was also a writer for Global Agenda, economist.com's daily online news section and authored two book-length studies for the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU): Taiwan, Politics versus Prosperity, and China to 2000: Reform’s last chance and "Taiwan: China's Last Frontier" (Macmillan 1991). He is regularly interviewed on television and radio and quoted in international print media. Within the Economist Group, he participates as a moderator of business panels, including the recent Economist Conferences’ India Government Roundtable (March 2007).

Simon was educated at University College School, London and Trinity College, Cambridge and has a first class honours degree in Oriental Studies. He also attended the Beijing Languages Institute, Nanjing University, Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Boston. He speaks English, French, German, Mandarin.