THE CAIXIN MEDIA: PROMOTING

TRANSPARENCY AND
ACCOUNTABILITY
THROUGH INVESTIGATIVE
JOURNALISM
By HU SHULI
2014 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee
Presented at the 56th Ramon Magsaysay Awards Lecture Series
1 September 2014, Manila, Philippines

The time was November 2009, a bleak morning. In a glass-windowed

office building in the business district in East Beijing, more than 100
journalists jammed into one big office. It was quite a scene: technicians
were still busy setting up cables and computers; people were sharing
desks and some just grabbed a seat to work. Everything seemed to be
coming together, but simply look around, everywhere there were faces
beaming with hope and excitement.
That was the day Caixin Media was born. A team of idealistic journalists
decided to set up the new outlet to work together, and bring to the world
something valuable, something that can make a difference. Caixin was
just a startup. In that room there were journalists with young families,
there were fresh graduates, there were renowned investigative reporters
best in their trade in the country, and there were supporting staffs from

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sales, tech and administration that joined us, simply to do something

important and good.
I sat on a table in the middle of the room, and gave an opening remark.
Seeing those young faces, I could hardly control myself. Throughout my
professional life, obstacles and difficulties are daily encountering. But
having such a team of devoted journalists sharing similar visions, living
up to the same professional standard, ready to blaze a trail by our joint
efforts, was such a reward and incomparable experience. It is the team
that brings me to you today. How this team was formed and how it grew,
painted a vivid picture of the evolution of professional journalism in
China.
A Quick Flashback
In 1982 when I firstly joined the Workers Daily, all of Chinese media
was state-run, and part of their inherent mission was to promote
government policies and enhance social harmony. Having said that,
nobody told you that critical reporting was not allowed. So I tried.
I wrote about fraudulent transactions of state-owned companies, and
challenged unwise policies, which were all published on the state-run
Workers Daily. With that, I realized the room was actually larger than
what people used to think. But the key was to have solid investigation
and fair presentation.
Exploring whats possible under Chinas media regime was exciting, but
not enough. Courage alone was not sufficient. I needed standards and
skills, perspectives and visions, to make sense of Chinas historical
transition, and to find out how I can contribute as a journalist.
My two fellowships in the U.S., in 1986 and 1994, were extremely
enriching. I had the opportunity to observe America up and close, to
work side by side with senior US media professionals, and to learn from

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some of the worlds best minds through interviews and conversations.

During my trip, most people I talked to were thrilled by Chinas great
potential and the fast pace of change, but many worried for me and other
Chinese journalists. Hearing my plan to get back to China after the
fellowship, professor Nelson at Stanford University, who I held
enormous respect, told me, Shuli, I respect your decision to go back.
But it would be very hard for you. Chinese journalism will never be part
of mainstream international journalism. (Pause) Really?
The time was 1995, Chinas GDP was about tenth of what we have
today, the society was on the eve of market economy, and painful
restructuring and robust opening up were both happening. Moreover,
there was almost no real independent media in the country. Professor
Nelsons worries were understandable. But that didnt change my
decision.
I did return to China. And a few years later, I set up a finance and
business magazine called Caijing, together with a small number of
extremely talented young journalists. We had a simple goal in our minds
applying the highest journalist standard to cover stories in Chinas
historical transition, in other words, we wanted to practice professional
journalism and believed it could fly in China.
Well, it did fly. In the late 1990s, Chinas financial industry was in its
infancy, and our business and financial coverage accompanied its
growth. The business community recognized the importance of
transparent, objective and reliable reporting. And our professional work
earned their respect. More importantly, our work left undisputable marks
on the history of Chinese journalism and the financial industry.
Ling Huawei, the current deputy managing editor of Caixin, then was a
25-year-old rookie, spent a whole year investigating the largest listed
company in China and finally exposed its cooked book. The company

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went bankrupt after we published the story, becoming the very first
Chinese company to be brought down by investigative journalism.
Li Qing, now the head of Caixins securities report and a proud mother
of two, nailed down an exclusive academic report in 2001 on how
mutual funds manipulated the market. She spent months to verify these
shady practices. The story ensued a change of industry regulation, which
outlawed many practices we revealed. Later a lawsuit against us was
jointly filed by 10 funds. It was also a first in Chinese financial
journalism history. We won.
Wang Xiaobing, a baby-faced senior editor together with her reporter,
unveiled a secret privatization of a provincial energy company in 2007.
The translation went bust after the exposure.
Stories like these filled in the pages of the bi-weekly magazine, and
demonstrated, day in and day out, that good journalism can safeguard
public interests and foster changes of rules. Be that the evolution of
capital market, the reform of state-owned companies, or the anticorruption campaign, we pointed out overt and covert loopholes, we
portrait the rising business community, and we expanded our scope from
finance to significant social issues, applying the same stringent
standards.
Revealing truth to the public was the foundation of rational discussion
and social engagement. We were glad to see the impact of such reports
rippled from the elites to the general public, who then demanded for
more truth, demanded for more transparency as well as accountability.
Unlike the U.S., Chinese law didnt give a breathing space for
journalists. In other words, we have to be 200% sure about our facts and
figures. For each investigative story, layers of checking, and multiple
source verification are the norm. Lawyers were often put in the same
room with editors to give opinions. The barriers are high. At stake is not

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only our professional reputation, but also the hard-earned room for
reporting and the fragile social trust.
Our team was perhaps the first ones in China to make investigative
journalism the bulk of our daily work. But soon we were joined by more
and more peers. Independent media outlets flourished in the market.
Starting from the early 21st century, you see many burgeoning
independent media outlets, and the number of professional business
reporters grew tremendously in recent years.
Social Media and Mobile Age
Caixin Media was set up in 2009 with the same group of ambitious and
professional journalists. Compared with a decade ago, China has
experienced breaking-neck speed of changes. The countrys story has
become more complicated. We remain to be critical and thorough, but
add more flexibility in developing channels to reach the audience.
The audiences are harder to please today. Internet and mobile brings
information to their fingertips, and it seems that everybody can become
an information hub. Its a challenge faced by media across the globe.
Whats unique in China? Regulation on media has become more
comprehensive and nuanced. Business interests have encroached
journalistic integrity and scandals are abundant. The internet age poses
the biggest challenge to traditional medias business model and forced
painful changes of the way we report, and the way we run the media
company. All these are happening at the same time, and are helping the
whole Chinese media industry mature, both in terms of professionalism
and as sustainable businesses.

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These are trying times, but we see opportunities.

The power of Internet gives wings to our investigative stories and let it
reach a far wider audience through social media. It also made the story
travel fast, often times faster than regulatory or business intervention.
The vibrant capital market can also be source of funding for media
entrepreneurs, diverging the states stake in media.
All these are means. We keep asking ourselves, in the changing time,
whats the mission of a journalist? The answer is the same -- Critical
views and informed, rational discussion still matter. Solid media
investigation is always the best guardian of publics right to know.
Professional journalistic work is still vital to enhance social
transparency. And professional journalists are still in short supply -those who decide to devote their career life to stay critical and keep
digging.
When the country was celebrating the rapid development of high speed
railway, Caixin probed whats behind the legend cronyism,
problematic train parts, flawed signal system and so on. When everyone
in the nation was speculating the fate of the highest level official being
investigated, Caixin went to the very bottom of the business empire of
his family, and unraveled it bit by bit with voluminous documents
collected from China, U.S., Canada and Iraq, and interviews with
hundreds of people. China offers ample supply of stories, and we pick
our fight, focusing on the ones with biggest social impact, and most
significant in shaping the historical transition.
With more than 200 reporters, Caixin has a daily supply of exclusives
and in-depth analysis, and like the stories I mentioned, we still do the
old-fashioned, long form investigation that demands laborious teamwork
and takes months, sometimes years, to hatch.

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Look at my colleagues. Some of them became journalism industry

legend in their 20s, but still are on the front line of investigation. The
professional glory of yesterday didnt prevent them from adapting to the
new age, and the challenges of a different era didnt blind them from
curiosity or the faith in our journalistic mission.
And looking back at my path. The first half of my professional pursuit
was to become a better journalist, fearless, critical and thorough. And
the other half was to form, to lead, and to protect a team of like-minded,
great journalists to do their job. The latter was much, much more
rewarding and impactful.
Its an age of developed means. But our principle remains simple and
unchanged. Its a time that readers are inundated with choices and
voices. But we keep doing what weve done in the last decade:
investigative journalism. So many of the stories were larger than life.
We still apply a simple rule, that the power of truth is stronger than
anything. My fellow journalists at Caixin, and myself, work toward that
goal, and feel deeply, deeply fortunate, that we are born in a changing
age and our work can make the society a better place.

Copyright 2016 Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation