Wang Zhian

Wang Zhian (Chinese: 王志安; born 21 April 1968), is a blacklisted investigative journalist from China. He has worked as a reporter and host for China Central Television (CCTV) and as a chief investigative reporter, media editor, and planner for The Beijing News. Before his ban in 2019, Wang often weighed in on news and current events on his personal social media accounts in China.
He moved to Tokyo, Japan in 2020 and in May 2022, began operating his YouTube channel named after himself. Wang publishes video commentary mainly on Chinese politics and social issues and conducts interviews.
==Early life==
Wang was born in Tongguan County in April 1968. He grew up in Shaanxi Province along with three other siblings.
===Education===
Wang enrolled into the Faculty of Chemistry, Wuhan University in 1986 before transferring to the School of Political Science and graduating in 1991. After graduation, Wang worked briefly as a lecturer in the Inner Mongolia University of Technology in 1993 before taking a Master's degree in History at Peking University in 1996.
====Participation in the 1989 protest====
In 1989, Wang participated in the democracy movement in China as a student protestor and spent 13 days protesting in Tiananmen square. In Beijing, Wang acted as the student representative for Wuhan University where he attended meetings with other university representatives as well as giving public speeches on the street. Wang left Beijing and returned to Wuhan University on 31st May, 4 days before the Tiananmen massacre, where he continued to participate in rallies and protests. Fearing prosecution, Wang left Wuhan on the 9th of June for Inner Mongolia, before returning 2 months later in August to continue his studies.
==Career==
===CCTV===
Wang started his investigative journalist career in 1998 in the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. Wang first worked as a producer, then commentator, before moving to the investigative division within CCTV in 2011. In CCTV, Wang worked on News Probe, a documentary television programme, where Wang and his team expose malpractice within the Chinese government such as corruption, illegal land grabs, cases of abuse in the healthcare system and other societal issues in their show.
In 2015, a news story Wang investigated for months exposing malpractice in Beijing's ambulance dispatch system was axed by the Central Propaganda Department a few days before airing. Infuriated, Wang stopped going to work in protest and resigned from CCTV a month later in December 2015.
===Beijing News===
After leaving CCTV, Wang worked for The Beijing News in 2017 as an investigative journalist and video editor. He is also the host of Hard Talk with Wang (Chinese: 局面), an interview show. The show quickly gained popularity online in China, earning Wang the nickname "Wang Ju". The show was short-lived however as the production stopped in the same year.
On June 4, 2019, Wang was banned and blacklisted across China, with his social media accounts on Weibo, Wechat and Toutiao permanently terminated. The authorities did not inform Wang the reasons for his ban.
===Youtube===
Three years after his blanket ban across the Chinese internet, Wang returned to China in 2022 attempting to revive his career in investigative journalism within Mainland China. However, facing the even stricter and more repressive policies on journalism and freedom of speech in China after the COVID-19 pandemic, Wang gave up his plan to continue his career in Mainland China. After returning to Japan, Wang started producing his commentary show Wang's News Talk (Chinese: 王局拍案) by himself out of an apartment in Tokyo. The first episode of his show was published on Youtube on May 2, 2022.
==Controversies==
===Allegation of defending a child abuser===
In 2012, a series of pictures showing a teacher physically abusing a young boy under her care in a Zhejiang daycare centre emerges on the Chinese social media Weibo. The incident quickly gained traction online with Chinese netizens condemning the teacher's action and calling for her arrest and prosecution. Wang, who went to Zhejiang to investigate the incident, posted on his personal Weibo page "Don't just look at the pictures, pictures don't always reflect the truth" while claiming that he arrived at the conclusion after conducting interviews with police officers handling the case. Wang's statement received massive backlash on the platform, with some netizens calling him a child abuse apologist and others calling for him to be sacked from CCTV. For the incident, Wang was faced with disciplinary actions by CCTV for publishing pieces of information he obtained from his investigation without permission. Wang was made to delete all his posts on Weibo about the incident and was handed a 3 months suspension from CCTV.
Category:1968 births
Category:People from Shaanxi
Category:Chinese people
Category:Investigative journalists