Again in the USA, Mr. Kahn accomplished his grasp’s program, then returned to Dallas as an editor on the overseas desk of The Morning Information. Quickly, the newspaper agreed to make him an Asia correspondent, primarily based in Hong Kong, the place his reporting on mistreatment of Chinese language girls helped the paper win a Pulitzer in 1994.
Employed by The Wall Road Journal on the finish of 1993, Mr. Kahn was primarily based in Shanghai, a uncommon station for American journalists on the time. One colleague, Kathy Chen, recalled Mr. Kahn as wry however understated. “He was a grasp of creating some humorous remark whereas barely cracking a smile,” she mentioned.
His profession was on the upswing — till a fallacious flip threatened to derail it.
At 32, Mr. Kahn was appointed editor and writer of The Far Jap Financial Overview, a weekly publication owned by Dow Jones, The Journal’s dad or mum firm. It was a poor match: Older reporters had been skeptical of Mr. Kahn’s relative inexperience, and he had by no means overseen the enterprise facet of an expert publication. He returned to The Journal as a correspondent after solely three months.
In hindsight, Mr. Kahn known as it a blessing: His reporting quickly landed him a job at The Occasions in 1998. He must begin over in an unfamiliar newsroom, however he mentioned that was a part of the enchantment: “I used to be excited to show myself once more.”
After a stateside stint protecting Wall Road and economics, Mr. Kahn returned to China in 2002. He reported aggressively on the nation’s politics and monetary dealings, irking leaders who had been hostile to a free press. In 2003, a younger Occasions researcher, Zhao Yan, was arrested on costs of exposing state secrets and techniques; Mr. Kahn helped lead efforts to free him and defend him in courtroom.
In 2006, Mr. Kahn’s investigation into China’s antiquated authorized system, co-written with the correspondent Jim Yardley, won a Pulitzer Prize. The subsequent 12 months, he married Shannon Wu, who previously labored on the World Financial institution; they now stay in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village with their two sons.
After returning to New York in 2008 as an editor, Mr. Kahn helped launch The Occasions’s Chinese language-language website, a multimillion-dollar funding at a time of economic shortage for the corporate. Shortly after the location launched in 2012, Mr. Kahn was a part of the group of editors who determined to publish an investigation into the hidden wealth of China’s ruling class, led by the Enterprise desk, over the strident objections of the Chinese language authorities.
