Jasper Becker is the publisher of Asia Weekly which was launched in April 2007. The Hong Kong-based weekly news magazine is circulated in 15 countries and has a staff of 30. It is the first Asian English-language news magazine launched in 30 years. He has been a foreign correspondent for 25 years including 17 years based in Beijing and written three books on China, one on North Korea and another on Mongolia. They have been translated into seven languages. His latest, City of Heavenly Tranquility, is a history of Beijing which Penguin (UK) is launching in June 2008.
He started his career working in Brussels, Geneva and Frankfurt for The Associated Press. From 1985-1992, he worked for The Guardian newspaper and reported from Beijing from 1985 to 1989. The paper nominated him as foreign correspondent of the year for his coverage of the 1989 Tiananmen demonstrations.
From 1995-2002, he was Beijing Bureau Chief of Hong Kong’s English-language South China Morning Post (SCMP). From 2002-2005, he was the China correspondent for The Independent.
Every month Jasper Becker speaks at two or three conferences and executive briefings. He has often been interviewed by the BBC World Service, CNBC, NBC, ABC AP-TV, Reuters TV, 60 Minutes, Nightline, Radio France International, Sky News, ITN, ARD TV, Deutsche Welle, South Korea’s KBS. In May 2002, he gave evidence about North Korea at a hearing held by the House of Representatives International Relations Committee, and has given talks to the US Council for International Relations, and other venues
His book Hungry Ghosts, the first account of China’s Great Leap Forward famine (1958-62) won the 4th PIOOM Foundation Award for a work on major human rights abuses. Articles on North Korea won the Kilpatrick Award for Human Rights and Children and coverage of the Falun Gong crackdown the Hong Kong Human Rights Press Award.
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