Nov.1, 2023
Now a Pulitzer finalist!
An investigative story on how China’s richest man built his business empire Nongfu Spring by bottling water from the country’s most ecologically important mountains, lakes, and rivers, bringing himself massive fortune as well as resistance and lawsuits from impacted communities.
We flew to southern China to talk to tea farmers who blamed Nongfu for exacerbating the extreme drought that almost killed their plantations, and fishermen who are concerned of companies taking water from the lake they depend on even when there wasn‘t enough.
“This is a monopoly of water,” a villager told us. “How come water resources have become their tool for getting rich?”
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NOTE: To find credientials for me and my China-based colleagues at Bloomberg, please scroll down to the bottom of the story.
July 7, 2023
China’s scientists are trying to shield meting glaciers from the sun, and I hiked with them to the 4,800-meter mountain on the Tibetan Plateau to figure out how.
Feb. 17, 2023
After a thousand years, a buddhist temple get power for the first time thanks to solar. I shared a meal with its residents - two monks and one cat - after 4 hours of hike.
Feb. 15, 2023
How to power a plane with leftover Sichuan hotpot? We tracked down hotpot waste’s path from a restaurant’s back-kitchen to industrial oil tanks.
October 29, 2024
The Inflation Reduction Act restored American manufacturing jobs – and gave China an opportunity to extend its dominance in some clean energy technologies.
June 24, 2025
My experience of trying to buy a Labubu during China’s big summer shopping festival, and what that means to China’s consumer market.
Aug. 24, 2022
Southern China saw the most severe drought in 60 years, and we flew down to the Yangtze River and talked to retiree swimmers who witnessed the water level’s retreat for decades.
