China Editor, The Economist
Rob Gifford joined The Economist as China Editor in August 2011. He first set foot in China as a language student in 1987, and worked for several years for the BBC, before joining American broadcaster NPR as a correspondent in Beijing, London and then Shanghai. His first book, entitled China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power, was published in 2007. It recounts a 5000 kilometre journey he made along China’s Route 312, which runs from Shanghai to the Kazakh border.