Chai Jing

Chai Jing (; born on 1 January 1976) is a Chinese investigative journalist. Chai began her career as a radio host in Hunan in 1995 and joined China Central Television (CCTV) in 2000. She is known for her CCTV shows News Probe from 2003 to 2009 and Seeing from 2011 to 2013, which featured boundary-pushing investigative and human-interest reporting, including the state broadcaster's first coverage of the gay community in 2005. In 2015, after leaving CCTV following the shutdown of Seeing amid tightening press controls, Chai produced the documentary Under the Dome about China's air pollution. The documentary was banned on 7 March 2015, marking her blacklisting in China. That same year, she was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People. In 2017, Chai relocated to Spain, where she continued her work as an independent journalist on YouTube.

Career

Hunan Radio In 1991, Chai enrolled in Changsha Railway Institute (now Central South University Railway Campus) in Changsha, Hunan Province, majoring in accounting. While still a college student, Chai wrote a letter to Shang Neng, her favorite host at local radio station, asking for a job opportunity. Shang offered her a job at the station. After graduation in 1995, Chai hosted a radio program, Gentle Moonlight . Three years later, at age 22, she enrolled in Beijing Broadcasting Institute (now Communication University of China) to study television production, while hosting another Hunan radio program, New Youth, . In 2001, she joined China Central Television (CCTV) as a reporter and presenter, meanwhile working on a Master of Fine Arts at Peking University.

China Central Television In 2000, scouted by TV producer Chen Mang, Chai joined CCTV, and became a host and reporter for Horizon Connection the following year. In 2003, she was reassigned to News Probe, and rose to prominence for her high-risk, on-the-ground coverage of the SARS crisis.

At CCTV, she established herself as one of China's most prominent investigative journalists, known for her boundary-pushing reports and human-interest features, which stood out, and often came under censorship pressure, at the propaganda-heavy, party-line-toeing state broadcaster. Her notable reports for News Probe include subjects such as abused women who killed their husbands, left-behind children, and, in 2005, the gay community—the first time the state broadcaster had covered a group whose existence the Chinese government had long denied. Despite eliciting mixed reactions within the media industry for its perceived sentimentality and focus on grassroots and marginalized groups rather than the traditional CCTV subjects of state affairs, her work leveraged the state broadcaster's stature to become a formidable instrument of public scrutiny, particularly in exposing abuses by local authorities.

In 2009, after she investigated Chongqing's "anti-crime" purge under Bo Xilai and cases of farmland expropriation from farmers in Inner Mongolia, the Chinese censors issued an internal directive prohibiting media outlets from conducting any "investigative reporting on legal or political institutions." Chai was subsequently removed from News Probe and left investigative journalism to anchor 24 Hours and host One on One for CCTV News. The documentary, with Chai as a matter-of-fact on-stage presenter, was viewed more than 150 million times by March 3 and has since been censored in China.

YouTube In July 2017, she moved to Barcelona, Spain with her husband and daughter. In August of the same year, she personally witnessed the terrorist attack on La Rambla and used the incident as an inspiration to investigate Islamic terrorism in Europe. She and director Ming Fan took several years to produce the six-episode documentary series Stranger: Talking to Jihadists , with her husband Zhao Jia as photographer. It had been broadcast on her personal YouTube channel on 17 August 2023, with one episode per week. On 13 August, the trailer posted on WeChat was quickly blocked. Chai has since become an independent journalist, producing news programs on her YouTube channel.

In 2025, her YouTube program re-interviewed Gao Binghan, a Kuomintang veteran of the Chinese Civil War who had received the 2012 Touching China Award following her CCTV interview with him amid the improved cross-strait relations. After the second interview, against the background of what Chai described as "under the cloud of war" in the Taiwan Strait, her CCTV-era memoir Seeing (2013), a bestseller which was translated into English in 2023, was banned in China, with remaining copies pulled from bookstores and its Douban page and Baidu Encyclopedia entry removed.

Personal life From around 2000 to late 2001 or early 2002, Chai was in a relationship with Su Qun, a sports reporter and CCTV basketball commentator. She later dated Zhao Jia, a photographer, but they broke up in 2002. The two rekindled their relationship in 2012 and married in early 2013. That same year, Chai gave birth to their daughter, Chai Zhiran, in the United States.

Controversy

False allegations On 19 September 2009, a blogger, Wujinger1 , posted a false article, "Famous CCTV hostess Chai Jing arrested today on suspicion of taking bribes". The next day, Chai blogged a denial of the rumor. Several months later, on 13 July 2010, Wujinger1 ran another false article, "CCTV hostess Chai Jing was taken away by the procuratorate again today", alleging that she was again being investigated on corruption charges. It was later discovered that Wujinger1 was named Wu Zhibo, who wanted to seek attention. He apologized to Chai, saying she was his idol, and he wanted the public to know more about Chai.

Other work One on One is a 45-minute personal interview and biographical show of celebrities, current events and authority figures. Seeing, which began in 2010, was hosted by Chai on weekends. The multimedia program observes life changes and people's desires, thoughts and perceptions in the rapid transformation of the time. The goal is to improve understanding among people.

Publications

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Awards 2003: Correspondent of the Year for investigative journalism on the fight against SARS 2008: Annual Green Characters Moving China in 2007 2009: Capital Association of Female Reporters speech contest award 2010: Golden Camera Prize of the Potatoes Festival. She was chosen as one of the Annual Top Ten Hosts of CCTV