Ben Chu

Journalist

Economics Editor of Newsnight

Ben Chu is Economics Editor of Newsnight, the BBC's flagship news and current affairs programme broadcast on weekdays on BBC TWO. He is also the author of Chinese Whispers: Why Everything You’ve Heard About China is Wrong

Writing.

5 days ago

Does fossil fuel divestment make sense?

Does the fossil fuel divestment agenda risk being an environmental and economic own goal?

5 days ago

The philosophy underpinning how money works

What even is money? Where does its value come from?

Oct 28, 2020

The welfare state after Covid: Back to Beveridge or beyond?

Beveridge saw the Second World War had provided a transformative shock. Could the coronavirus pandemic provide another?

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Television.

Selected films and reports for BBC Newsnight - RTS Daily News Programme Of The Year 2019

View Youtube channel for more videos

Radio.

Analysis-20210607-FunnyMoneyAnalysis: Funny Money

00:00 / 28:18

Listen to Ben's programme on where money gets its value from for BBC Radio 4

Analysis: The Future Of Welfare

00:00 / 28:00

Listen to Ben's Radio 4 documentary on the welfare state

The Inquiry: Will a pandemic ever kill millions again?BBC World Service, The Inquiry

00:00 / 23:02

Listen to Ben's Radio 4 podcast on the threat posed by coronavirus

Books.

'Chu's smart, iconoclastic portrait dismantles seven misconceptions about modern China and offers a corrective to Western assumptions.' New Statesman

THE CHINESE ARE THE MOST HARDWORKING PEOPLE ON EARTH...
So why are the younger generation derided as spoiled and lazy?

CHINESE PEOPLE DON'T CARE ABOUT POLITICAL FREEDOM...
So why is the country's internet exploding with anti-regime dissent?

CHINA WILL ONE DAY RULE THE WORLD...
So why do the country's political leaders feel so insecure?

Perhaps it is time to stop engaging in a centuries-old game of Chinese whispers in which the facts have become more and more distorted in the telling.

Ben Chu examines the myths that have come to dominate our view of the world's most populous nation, forcing us to question everything we thought we knew about it. The result is a penetrating, surprising and provocative insight into China today.