She got her first taste of the United States during an American Field Service scholarship in the mid-60s, and after three years in her first journalism job - at The Australian newspaper - she left Australia for New York in 1972.
At the start of her career as a foreign correspondent, Perlez was a Pulitzer finalist for coverage of the famine in Somalia, and the dispatch of American forces.
Her articles included reporting on the Inter Services Intelligence and the Pakistani army, as well as on the Taliban, and their ability to strike at the core of Pakistan's institutions.
Her stories for the New York Times included coverage of Xi's visit to the United States in 2015; his creation of the Belt and Road Initiative; the program MADE IN CHINA 2025; and AAIB.
In 2022, she hosted a podcast series titled The Great Wager,[3] about how Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger made friends with China 50 years ago, and how it's falling apart.