Melissa Chan

Melissa Chan (, ) is a Chinese American freelance journalist working in broadcast and print. Her works have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Washington Post, VICE News, POLITICO, and Foreign Policy. She has reported for VICE News Tonight, Al Jazeera English, and presents DW News Asia on Deutsche Welle TV. She has appeared as a guest on CNN and the BBC.

Early life Chan was born in 1980 in British Hong Kong and grew up in the Los Angeles area after her family emigrated to the United States when she was three years old.

Chan attended Yale University, graduating in 2002 with a B.A. in history. In 2005, she completed a Masters of Science in comparative politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in the United Kingdom.

Career Early career Chan worked for ABC News in New York from 2002 to 2004, eventually joining the production team at World News Tonight. During her five years with Al Jazeera English, she filed some 400 reports, including stories on land confiscation and so-called "black jails." Chan also reported stories from North Korea.

In 2012, Chan left China after her visa and press credentials were not renewed and Al Jazeera English closed its Beijing bureau. The Chinese government provided no explanation for the move, though officials had previously accused Chan of unspecified violations of the law that were never clarified. Yang's statement occurred during an official Chinese government campaign to identify illegal foreign residents in China. Yang's full posting (translated from Mandarin by The Wall Street Journal) was:

The Public Security Bureau wants to clean out the foreign trash: To arrest foreign thugs and protect innocent girls, they need to concentrate on the disaster zones in [student district] Wudaokou and [drinking district] Sanlitun. Cut off the foreign snake heads. People who can’t find jobs in the U.S. and Europe come to China to grab our money, engage in human trafficking and spread deceitful lies to encourage emigration. Foreign spies seek out Chinese girls to mask their espionage and pretend to be tourists while compiling maps and GPS data for Japan, Korea and the West. We kicked out that foreign bitch and closed Al-Jazeera’s Beijing bureau. We should shut up those who demonize China and send them packing.

Stanford University and Al Jazeera America After leaving China, Chan completed a John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University during the 2012–2013 academic year. She spent her year developing digital security training and tools for journalists facing potential hacker attacks from state-sponsored entities.