Michael Forsythe: Unlocking the Mystery Behind Numbers

by Morgan Lin

Hong Kong – “As foreign reporters in China, we are obviously safer than Chinese reporters in China.” Michael Forsythe, a correspondent in Hong Kong for Bloomberg, said to audience at a sharing session Thursday.

It is exactly this belief that bestows Forsythe guts to probe the wealth associated with Xi Jinping’s siblings, the new president of China, which won him the SOPA Scoop Award 2013.

At the session named “FOLLOWING THE RENMINBI- using Chinese financial documents to write groundbreaking stories” at Hong Kong Baptist University, Forsythe shared his practical experience with a audience of nearly 100 students.

As an experienced journalist with educational backgrounds in both international economics and  Eastern Asian regional studies, Forsythe is excellent in covering Chinese politics and finance. While abstract and obscure financial data and documents drive some amateur or impatient reporters crazy, they are goldmines for Forsythe to dig out and drive him to discover unexpected secrets.

Besides companies’ annual financial reports and share transaction information known by many journalists as a way to explore exclusive financial news, according to Forsythe, files from State Administration for Industry and Commerce are extremely important when doing corporate investigative reporting in China, which also laid foundation for his story on the wealth of Xi Jinping’s family.

“Xi Jinping Millionaire Relations Reveal Fortunes of Elite” took Forsythe and his colleagues 50 days from initial research to final publishing, much less than average, because they wanted it to be published as soon as possible so as to have  strong impacts on both the reputation of Bloomberg and the future of China . In order to complete this report with high efficiency and accuracy, about 10 journalists were devoted to it simultaneously-making the family tree, looking for assets, writing drafts, correcting and deciding when to stop.

When introducing the procedure for reporting investigative news, Forsythe emphasized the importance of repeated fact-checking: from numbers, dates and names to every single sentence. In case of making any mistake, he and his colleagues tend to footnote everything with its source and evidence.

The story on the wealth of Xi Jinping’s family brought Forsythe not only glory in his career but also problems sometimes. However, he believed that his role as foreign correspondent benefited him a lot when reporting China. Still, for these audiences, most of whom are from Mainland China, he believed, “If Chinese journalists have the freedom to do all these stories, it would be amazing. And it would not just be Xi Jinping, it would be … everybody. And these leaders and their family have to be under best behavior. You job must be rewarding.”