China Reporting

Reporting on China

Map of China in red with the national flag, featuring five yellow stars, overlaid on top, symbolically reporting China's national identity.

Unique among American journalism programs, Berkeley Journalism’s China Reporting Project gives our journalism students a head start on covering China’s culture, history and politics. Launched in 2022, the project is part of the school’s renewed focus on international reporting.

The need couldn’t be more urgent: Recent hostility and harsh rhetoric between the United States and China has become unnecessarily overheated, even dangerous. How Americans understand their relationship to China matters to all of us.

Led by lecturers like veteran New York Times reporters Edward Wong and Amy Qin, the project gives a select group of students the opportunity to deepen their knowledge and reporting skills. By the end of the class, students will have produced a body of work that’s publication-ready, too.

Thanks to the generous gifts by Berkeley alum Bak Chan, a board member and past president of the UC Berkeley California Alumni Association Chinese Chapter, Berkeley Journalism also provides tuition support to an incoming Berkeley Journalism student with a demonstrated interest in covering China.

Bak explained that he supports the China Reporting Project because he “truly believes that the future relations between these two countries that so many of us care so passionately about can be positively shaped by outstanding journalism.”

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You won’t just report about these countries, you’ll report from these countries.

What Our Graduates Are Saying...

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"My favorite class..."

The China Reporting class was by far my favorite class in my second year of journalism school and it was a privilege to work my tail off to keep up. Learning from working professionals and their first-hand experiences reporting on China was enlightening. Our guest lecturers were some of the most talented writers, most celebrated filmmakers, innovative multimedia reporters, analysts, and historians.

Michaela Vatcheva ('22)

Bulgarian-Turkish filmmaker and freelance photojournalist based in Bulgaria

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"So many educational and funding opportunities for aspiring international reporters"...

I chose to go to the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism because it provides so many educational and funding opportunities for aspiring international reporters. In the class Reporting on China and Taiwan, which was taught by the excellent New York Times reporters Ed Wong and Amy Qin, I was able to use my Mandarin-language skills on a school-sponsored reporting trip to Taiwan. I’m so grateful that at UC Berkeley I got the opportunity to gain both international reporting experience and connections to support my career.

Marissa Muller (‘24)

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"Allowed me to connect with exceptional professors well-versed in both China and Taiwan..."

Growing up in Taiwan, I lived on a small island with extensive interaction with other countries. Despite its size, Taiwan plays a crucial role on the international stage, with its political significance rooted in its relationship with China and its economic importance highlighted by its chip industry's support of the United States. I chose to become an international reporter to show Taiwan's importance to global readers and to explain the complexity of its history, economy and culture. The "Reporting in China" project allowed me to connect with exceptional professors well-versed in both China and Taiwan topics and meet like-minded peers who share my passion for international reporting.

Hailey Wang ('25)

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"The J-School set me up for success..."

I went to UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism seeking opportunities to report on Asia-Pacific affairs, with a focus on China. I studied Chinese, took courses about reporting on Asia, and was able to work with accomplished professional journalists who had extensive on-the-ground reporting experience in Asia. My first-ever international reporting trip was part of a J-School course on Hong Kong. That led to a summer internship in Taiwan. The J-School at Berkeley set me up for success in radio journalism with an emphasis on international news. Over the years, I’ve been lucky to be able to report from China, South Korea, Hong Kong, across the Middle East and in Europe.

Matthew Bell ('00)

Editor & Correspondent, “The World” Public Radio Program, GBH Boston & PRX

"Gave me the tools, knowledge, networks and inspiration to pursue it..."

At the time I applied to the Berkeley J-school, I’d tasted enough of international reporting to be enthralled by it but still didn’t know how to make it work. The program at North Gate not only reinforced what intrigued me about a career as a foreign correspondent, but also gave me the tools, knowledge, networks and inspiration to pursue it. My coursework, instructors, classmates all challenged and enriched me -- more than I anticipated. And lo and behold it worked!

Josh Chin 李肇华

Deputy Bureau Chief, China, The Wall Street Journal

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"I still rely on those lessons in what I do today..."

I became interested in international reporting after studying in China as an undergraduate. The journalism school’s international reporting program, in particular a trip to Nagasaki as part of Todd Carrel and Masahiko Sasajima's course on covering Japan, helped me learn how to report in a new place and raise my ambitions for the sort of work I hoped to do. I still rely on those lessons in what I do today.

Austin Ramzy (’03)

Hong Kong-based reporter for The Wall Street Journal

Where Our Alums Work Now

Featured Stories on China

They came here wishing for a “happily-ever-after.” That’s not what happened.

Chinese women’s struggle to cope with domestic violence in the U.S.

A person in a long coat walking. A paintbrush over a canvas and a table are depicted in separate rectangles on the left, reminiscent of traditional Chinese artistry.

Junyao Yang ('23) talks to survivors of intimate partner abuse in the U.S. to learn about their struggles for safety in a strange land, for The China Project. Yang was born and raised in Zigong, an industrial city in southwestern China.

Hong Kong Through Her Eyes: Regine Yau

Photo of a young woman wearing a t-shirt with a quote in white above her.

Regine Wai-ching Yau considers Hong Kong to be its own country and China a menacing threat. So in her early 20s, she ran for a seat in the parliament with no political background and got elected.

The Chinese Closet

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For many people, China is a country with modern cities, huge skyscrapers, and the world’s second largest economy. But underneath this modern looking facade, China is still very traditional in many of its culture values. One is the country’s acceptance of homosexuality. By Fan Fei, Jieqian Zhang and Larry Zhou.

Reporting on China

You won’t just report about these countries, you’ll report from these countries.