INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS
SOCIAL JUSTICE
2002: How a “China Business News” investigation sparkled debate on police brutality
In August 2002, plainclothes police in Yan’an (Shaanxi Province) entered the home of a married couple after receiving a tipoff that they had been watching porn. The husband, surnamed Zhang, was taken in custody and beaten up, requesting hospitalisation. Two months later, the police arrested him again on account of the previous incident under the…
2003: The article that shut down China’s 800 infamous migrant detention facilities
The article that shut down China’s 800 infamous migrant detention facilities
2010: Southern Metropolis Daily investigates China’s notorious “black prisons”
In Autumn 2010, several newsrooms started to report on China’s “black prisons” — secret, unlawful detention centres employed by the authorities where detainees are subject to intimidation, abuse and torture. Most of the reports focused on the private security firm An Yuan Ding, a company that operated multiple “black prisons” and primarily targeted citizens who…
2010: Years before #MeToo, a Chinese daily helped bring down a CEO’s predatory empire
In 2010, years before China’s #MeToo movement reached its full stride, Southern Metropolis Daily published the first investigation on sexual assault in the workplace in China. The piece discusses the case of Sunmoon Group, one of China’s largest cram school chains spanning over 300 locations across China and abroad, and its CEO Song Shanmu, who had…
2011: How Caixin exposed government-sanctioned child trafficking
From 2002 to 2005, Shaoyang City (Hunan province) experienced what is referred to by locals as the “wave of baby snatching,” during which the local family planning department forcibly took 13 infants from their families. Several were later found to have been sold to adoption agencies in Western countries for a price of 3,000 USD each…
2017: How China Youth Daily exposed a massive mortgage scam that targeted China’s elderly
A fraud scheme tricked dozens of elderly out of their housing in Beijing from 2015 to 2017.
2020: The report that shed light on Chinese delivery drivers’ appalling working conditions
Since there are no trade unions, Chinese delivery workers cannot fight against the time allotted by the platform’s algorithms, and have to resort to dangerous practices to ensure on-time delivery, which causes traffic accidents, some fatal.
2023: “White Paper protests” — How extreme Covid-19 measures led Chinese youth to the streets
This story is about a group of friends in China experiencing the stringent lockdowns and restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The oppressive measures, including enforced citywide quarantines and mass testing, have led to feelings of frustration and despair, provoking the white paper revolution. Central to the narrative are personal stories of friends Yan Liu, a…