INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS
ENVIRONMENT
2007: The article that startled China’s environmental consciousness
In November 2006, the local government announced it would build a new chemical plant producing toxic compounds just 7 km away from Xiamen City, with a population of over 2.2 million. This story, published in Hong Kong’s Phoenix Weekly in May 2007, is the first news article about the issue and uses public records as…
2009: When state-run agency Xinhua was also doing investigative journalism
In August 2009, the Economic Information Daily, a newspaper owned and operated by the state-run Xinhua news agency, released a series of hard-hitting reports investigating the unusually high rate of lead poisoning among children in the city of Fengxiang, Shaanxi Province. The story, written by Xinhua reporters Chen Gang and Liu Tonglian, revealed that 84%…
2025: A rare investigation that exposed a hidden toxic leak in Hunan
In a rare instance of environmental investigation in the post-Covid era, Caixin exposed a toxic leak in Hunan Province’s Leishui River, bringing concealed pollution to light and prompting swift government action. On 23 March 2025, Caixin revealed that the Lei River—an essential water source for Chenzhou and Hengyang—was contaminated with dangerously high levels of the…