Dake Kang

Dake Kang is an American investigative journalist for the Associated Press (AP), based in Beijing. He reports on Chinese politics, technology, society and human rights, and has conducted reporting across Central, South and East Asia.

Kang shared the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting with Garance Burke, Byron Tau, Aniruddha Ghosal and Yael Grauer for an investigation into the development and international spread of government surveillance technology.

Early life and education

Kang is from New Jersey and has described himself as Korean American. He spent five years of his childhood in Shanghai, an experience that contributed to his later interest in returning to China as a journalist.

Kang attended the University of Chicago, where he studied history and mathematics. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2016. His undergraduate thesis examined the construction of the first line of the Beijing Subway and the influence of Soviet engineering and Cold War civil-defence planning on the project.

Career

Kang joined the Associated Press as an intern in Philadelphia in 2016. Before taking up a permanent role in China, he reported for the organization from New York, Thailand and Ohio, including assignments in Cleveland. He became based in Beijing in 2018.

The reporting documented detention centres, political indoctrination, restrictions on religious activity and other elements of the government's campaign in Xinjiang. Kang travelled extensively in the region and contributed reporting on internment, forced labour and the separation of families. Other recognition included a Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing Best in Business Award, a Wilbur Award for reporting on religion and a citation from the Overseas Press Club of America. The work was also named a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting. The Pulitzer citation described it as an investigation into Chinese state secrecy, the government's early pandemic response and abuses against Uyghurs.

The investigation used internal documents, interviews and visual reporting to trace surveillance technologies created or supplied by companies in Silicon Valley. The project examined their use in China's policing and mass-surveillance systems, their spread to countries including Nepal, and the use of licence-plate tracking by the United States Border Patrol.

Awards and recognition

In 2019, Kang and the Associated Press team behind China Clamps Down received the Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Journalism on Asia. The project also won the Sigma Delta Chi Award for foreign correspondence, a Best in Business Award for international reporting and a Wilbur Award for reporting on religion.

In 2020, Kang and the AP staff received the Overseas Press Club's Roy Rowan Award for the investigative series China Cracks Down.

In 2021, Kang and the AP staff were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for their coverage of China's initial COVID-19 response and human rights abuses against Uyghurs.

In 2026, Kang shared the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting with Garance Burke, Byron Tau, Aniruddha Ghosal and Yael Grauer for Made in America, Watched Worldwide. The same project received the Overseas Press Club's Malcolm Forbes and Morton Frank Award for international business reporting.