Yong Xiong - Investigative Producer
Yong Xiong
Investigative Producer
Yong Xiong is an award-winning investigative producer who produces multimedia content for CNN. Based in New York, he conducts data-driven and open-source investigations, with a focus on in-depth China stories.
Latest
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China stages war games around Taiwan after hitting out at major US arms dealDec 30, 2025China’s military mobilized army, navy, air and rocket units around Taiwan for two days of military drills aimed at sending a “serious warning” against any push for Taiwanese independence and “external” forces interfering with the island. -
China is building the world’s most powerful hydropower system deep in the Himalayas. It remains shrouded in secrecyDec 17, 2025Thousands of miles from China’s populous coastline, a sharp bend in a remote Himalayan river is set to become the centerpiece of one of the country’s most ambitious – and controversial – infrastructure projects to date. -
‘A new arms race’: Satellite images, maps and records reveal huge surge in China’s missile production sitesNov 7, 2025China has undertaken a massive expansion of sites linked to missile production since 2020, bolstering its ability to potentially deter the US military and assert its dominance in the region, a new CNN analysis of satellite images, maps and government notices reveals. -
The National Zoo’s panda program is ending after more than 50 years as China looks elsewhereOct 21, 2025(CNN) – Three giant pandas left their enclosure at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC, and departed by plane back to China on Wednesday, marking the end of more than 50 years of Chinese pandas being housed at the zoo. -
In the race to attract the world’s smartest minds, China is gaining on the USSep 29, 2025A Princeton nuclear physicist. A mechanical engineer who helped NASA explore manufacturing in space. A US National Institutes of Health neurobiologist. Celebrated mathematicians. And over half a dozen AI experts. The list of research talent leaving the US to work in China is glittering – and growing. -
Xi and Kim pledge deeper ties a day after unprecedented show of unity with Putin at Chinese military paradeSep 5, 2025Chinese leader Xi Jinping and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un have pledged to deepen strategic coordination in their first formal summit in six years, after they put on an unprecedented show of unity against the West alongside Russia’s Vladimir Putin at a massive military parade. -
Kim and Putin top Xi’s guest list for China’s huge military parade in defiant show of unityAug 28, 2025Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will be among more than two dozen foreign leaders to attend China’s massive military parade next week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced Thursday. -
Trump has vowed to free Jimmy Lai. A Hong Kong court is about to decide the media mogul’s fateAug 16, 2025Days before winning his second presidential term, Donald Trump made a bold promise: if he returned to the White House, he would free a pugnacious, self-made billionaire from a Hong Kong prison. -
Trump’s tariff threat exposes China’s tight grip on the global pharmaceuticals industryJun 3, 2025Trump’s tariff threat exposes China’s tight grip on the global pharmaceuticals industry -
The secret war between cat lovers and the abusers who profit from crueltyMay 31, 2025Every night after returning home from work, Chen opens his laptop and switches to his secret life as an undercover activist. -
Dreams cut short, Chinese students anxious and angry over ‘aggressive’ US visa ban plansMay 30, 2025The Trump administration’s plan to revoke Chinese student visas has sent shock waves through China, triggering widespread confusion, anxiety and fear among current and prospective students and their families, as well as strong opposition from Beijing. -
Trump administration will ‘aggressively revoke’ Chinese student visas in major escalation with BeijingMay 29, 2025The United States will “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday in a major escalation of tensions with Beijing, and another blow to American higher education institutions. -
‘Don’t come here’: Warning from the frontlines to Chinese nationals thinking of fighting for RussiaApr 29, 2025A Chinese man fighting for the Russian Army claims his superiors locked him in a dark steel-barred pit, with barely enough room to stand, for 21 days. His offense, he said, was a dispute with his commander over lifesaving protective gear. -
‘Invasion’ barges and deep-sea cable cutters: why new Chinese maritime tech is spooking defense watchersMar 26, 2025From a chain of massive barges stretching from a Chinese beach into the sea, to a powerful new design for cutting undersea cables at record depths, China’s latest maritime innovations have captured the attention of defense experts – fueling concerns about their potential role in a future invasion of Taiwan. -
‘Made in Russia’ goods are the new craze in ChinaMar 16, 2025Russian goods stores’ proliferation has left some Chinese residents puzzled, with many questioning why the outlets seem to have sprung up overnight. -
Why Argentina’s military is deploying to surveil hundreds of Chinese fishing boats off its coastMar 10, 2025The Argentine military is ramping up efforts to combat these fishing operations in a region experts warn is on the brink of environmental collapse.
About
Yong Xiong is an award-winning investigative producer who produces multimedia content for CNN. Based in New York, he conducts data-driven and open-source investigations, with a focus on in-depth China stories.
Xiong won a George Polk Award and a Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in TV Journalism for his reporting on the coronavirus and the unprecedented lockdown at the original epicenter in Wuhan. He also received the 2020 Young Journalist Award from the Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) for his contribution to CNN’s pandemic coverage.
Before moving to the United States, Xiong was based in Beijing and Seoul. He holds university and post-graduate degrees in civil engineering and data journalism.
