The Economic Observer

The Economic Observer features seven regular sections: News, Nation, Market, Corporation, Automobile/Property, Observer, Lifestyle/Business Review.

The Economic Observer is considered to take a noticeably independent approach to reporting the news in China.[2]

The newspaper also has a reputation for being "pro-business" and in favor of the continuation of market reforms.[3]

On December 7, 2009, The Economic Observer was one of only two Chinese newspapers to publish a common editorial with 55 other newspaper around the world calling for action from the world leaders gathering in Copenhagen for the UN's climate change summit.[4] The idea for a common editorial was hatched by the British newspaper The Guardian.[5]

In March 2010, The Economic Observer published an editorial calling on representatives of China's legislature to adopt reforms to the country’s household registration system. In an unprecedented move, the editorial was also simultaneously published by 13 other Chinese newspapers.[6]

The editorial was headlined, “Request for Representatives at the Two Meetings to Hasten Reform of the Household Registration System”

A report in the New York Times[7] said that one of the editors involved, Deputy Editor of the Economic Observer Online Zhang Hong, was removed from his position as punishment for his role in the publishing the editorial.

According to an article on the Wall Street Journal's China Real Time Blog, Zhang Hong hatched the plan to publish an editorial in collaboration with other media outlets after taking part in the Guardian's "Copenhagen" editorial the previous year (see above).[8]

On July 30, 2011, a week after 40 people were killed in a high speed train collision near Wenzhou, the newspaper ignored a government censorship directive[9][10] to publish an eight-page feature[11] on the crash. The front page story was presented as a letter to 2-year old survivor Xiang Weiyi, whose parents were killed. It described two images of China, “one blossoming in the midst of the people, the other hidden in officialdom,” and pledged “to advocate and act” for the people’s rights.

The newspaper was fined and issued a warning over an inaccurate report published in June 2012 that said the Railway Ministry may be reformed. Authorities revoked the press pass of the reporter who wrote the story. The article claimed that the ministry may lose control of investment, construction and railway operations. It said the ministry would establish and inject assets into three new companies, which would be overseen by the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.[12]