Stephen McDonell is an Australian journalist who has been BBC's China correspondent since 2016. He is based in Beijing. He was previously the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's China correspondent from 2006 to 2015.

McDonell has a Master of Arts, Journalism degree from the University of Technology in Sydney and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wollongong.^{[citation needed]}

From 1993 to 1999, McDonell reported for the radio current affairs programs AM, The World Today and PM. He was a reporter for Four Corners, and worked with Lateline for two years.

In October 2006, he was posted to Beijing, China. As ABC China correspondent he has reported on the crash of MH17 and Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, among other things. The latter led to a warning to the ABC by the Chinese Embassy that there would be "wider implications" over its Foreign Correspondent report.

He also worked for The 7.30 Report and Radio National's Background Briefing.

He left the ABC in 2015. After spending Christmas with his family in Australia, he returned to Beijing and joined the BBC.

Significant events McDonell has reported on with the BBC include the 2019-20 Hong Kong pro-democracy protests and the COVID-19 pandemic.

While reporting on the Hong Kong protests in 2019, McDonell's face visor was smashed by a projectile.