A Mysterious Poisoning, Contaminated Tanker Trucks, and a Death in Custody: 2024’s Best Investigative Stories About China

In 2024 , two investigations took China by storm.

The first exposed a death caused by torture during police interrogation.

The second delved into the chaotic practices in the tanker truck industry.

These events reignited the Chinese public’s appreciation for the power of investigative journalism.

Three -part interview series focused on critical questions: What can the accumulated dosage and timeline of heavy metal traces in Zhu Ling’s hair reveal about the events leading up to her poisoning? How did vital evidence in the thallium poisoning case inexplicably vanish from Tsinghua University ?.

NPR unravels an “elaborate long con” in which a Chinese dissident in the Netherlands was defrauded out of US$ 17,000 .

The intent of the ruse was to trick them into thinking they’d been implicated in bomb threats against Chinese embassies and European airports.

NPR found fake email accounts purporting to be, among others, Thai police, Thai Airways , and a Dutch immigration authority.