Draft:Ben Chu

Ben Chu is a British journalist and author. He was Chief Leader Writer at The Independent until 2019. He is Economics Editor of BBC current affairs programme Newsnight.

Early life and education
Chu was born and grew up in Manchester, the son of a Chinese immigrant father and a Scottish mother.

In a 2013 interview Chu said he “grew up feeling thoroughly British” but was often asked where he was from because of how he looked. “I found that frustrating at the time”, he said. “Why did I have to explain my existence in a way that white contemporaries never did? But now it bothers me far less now.”

In a 2021 interview with Discover Economics, Chu described growing up in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Manchester and taking part in the vibrant nightclub scene, including visiting The Haçienda before it closed. He read modern history at Jesus College, Oxford.

Career
Chu started his career in journalism writing leading articles for The Independent and went on to become Chief Leader Writer. He occasionally writes for The Sunday Times and Prospect as a guest and makes occasional BBC Radio 4 documentaries. During the coronavirus pandemic, Chu presented the programme CoronaNomics. A 2022 Telegraph article described Chu a "well-respected name" in UK economics coverage. Caitlin Moran referenced Chu's work on Newsnight in a 2022 article "Liz Truss is gone, er. . . And this is the laugh I do every time Ben Chu shows me a graph going down on Newsnight."

He sits on the international advisory board of the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI). He is also a member of the Society of Professional Economists. Chu sits on the advisory council for The Bennett Institute for Public Policy.

Criticism
Right-wing political blogger, Guido Fawkes, attacked the BBC's appointment of "lefty remainer" Chu in 2019, stating that "he'll fit right in at the BBC...".

In 2020, Chu made the front page of Melton Times, accused of implying that the people of Melton Mowbray voted to leave the EU over immigration concerns.

Publications
Chinese Whispers: Why everything you’ve heard about China is wrong (2013, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson; ISBN 978-1-7802-2474-9)

Awards
Chinese Whispers was nominated for International Affairs Book of the Year at the Political Book Awards in 2014. Chu was a Media and Creative Industries Award Winner at the Blossom Awards, 2021.

Personal life
His brother is Dr John Chu, a Senior Curator at the National Trust.