Andrew Moody (journalist)
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Andrew Moody (2 September 1960 – 27 June 2021) was an English journalist and former UK national newspaper journalist specialising in business. He worked as the senior correspondent at ''
China Daily ''China Daily'' () is an English-language daily newspaper owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party. Overview ''China Daily'' has the widest print circulation of any English-language newspaper in China. T ...
'', a Chinese English-language newspaper, where he covered politics, the economy, business, history and culture.


Early life

Moody was born on 2 September 1960 and was brought up in
West Stockwith West Stockwith is a village within the Bassetlaw district of Nottinghamshire, England. The population at the 2011 census was 327. it lies on the west bank of the River Trent, north-west of Gainsborough and east of Misterton. West Stockwith ...
,
Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...
. He attended West Stockwith Primary School and later the King Edward VI Grammar School, Retford. He studied economics at
Coventry University , mottoeng = By Art and Industry , established = , type = Public , endowment = £28 million (2015) , budget = £787.5 million , chancellor = Margaret Casely-Hayford , vice_chancellor = John Latham , students = () , undergr ...
graduating with a BA in 1983 before studying journalism at Darlington College of Technology. He had a sister Jayne Graham, who later recalled that his interest in journalism began at age 15, when he became the press officer for a pigeon club.


Career

Moody's career started in regional news as a reporter at the ''Gainsborough News'' (which later became the ''Gainsborough Standard'') in 1983, before he moved to the ''Scunthorpe Star'' in 1984. In 1985 he was promoted to Group News Editor for the
Lincolnshire Standard The ''Lincolnshire Standard'' was a weekly newspaper published in Boston, England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies north ...
Group (which owned 20 local titles) before moving to be business correspondent at '' Gulf News'' (Dubai). In 1987 he became the business correspondent for the ''
Manchester Evening News The ''Manchester Evening News'' (''MEN'') is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in North West England, founded in 1868. It is published Monday–Saturday; a Sunday edition, the ''MEN on Sunday'', was launched in February 20 ...
'' before becoming City and Political correspondent at the '' Daily Express''. In 1995 he became a freelance business journalist writing for national newspapers and magazines including the ''Daily'' and '' Sunday Express'', ''
Mail on Sunday ''The Mail on Sunday'' is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. It is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK and was launched in 1982 by Lord Rothermere. Its sister paper, the ''Daily Mail'', was first pub ...
'' and ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
''. His interest in China began in the 1990s with a number of assignments to
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
, including covering the handover to China of the British colony in 1997. In February 2009, Moody became Senior Business Correspondent at ''
China Daily ''China Daily'' () is an English-language daily newspaper owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party. Overview ''China Daily'' has the widest print circulation of any English-language newspaper in China. T ...
'', after covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He later became Senior Correspondent Overseas and Global editions. This involves writing for China Daily’s European and Africa Weekly editions, as well as China Watch, which is published in conjunction with ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...
'' and publications across the world. During his time at China Daily Moody wrote 700 front page stories and covered political events including the Two Sessions Meeting, the CPC 19th National Party Congress, the 9th BRICS Summit in Xiamen, the
World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...
Summer Davos in Dalian and the High-Level Dialogue and Think Tank Forum: Fighting Against Poverty in Addis Ababa. He has written extensively on the Chinese economy and on China-Africa and China-UK relations. He has also interviewed former UK prime minister
Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
and covered the state visits of Chinese President
Xi Jinping Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, ...
(including his state visit to the UK in October 2015 and South Africa in December 2015). He interviewed the late prime minister of
Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
Meles Zenawi Meles Zenawi Asres (Tigrinya and ; , born Legesse Zenawi Asres; 9 May 1955 – 20 August 2012) was an Ethiopian soldier and politician who served as President of Ethiopia from 1991 to 1995 and then Prime Minister of Ethiopia from 1995 until his ...
, the former president of
Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
John Mahama and
Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...
president
Ernest Bai Koroma Ernest Bai Koroma (born 2 October 1953) is a Sierra Leonean politician who served as the fourth President of Sierra Leone from 17 September 2007 to 4 April 2018. Born and raised in Makeni in northern Sierra Leone, Koroma spent more than 24 ...
. Moody was cited extensively by publications around the world. In February 2020, for example, he interviewed Nobel laureate Michael Levitt. The resulting article was quoted 172 times by international media organisations. He also wrote more than 150 profiles of leading thinkers such as the Harvard historian Niall Ferguson, and Edmund Phelps, the Nobel Prize winner for economics. Moody was named a 'State High-End Project Foreign Expert'.


Articles

Notable articles Moody has written on China and other subjects include: * 'National rejuvenation' (5 July 2021) * 'Leading the way: China set to play crucial role in global recovery, experts say' (10 August 2020) * 'Huawei issue focuses spotlight on Sino-UK ties' (2 July 2020) * 'Krugman argues against 'zombies' (12 March 2020)


Awards

In 2019 Moody was given the Order of Friendship (China), the highest award that can be bestowed on a foreign citizen working in China, which was presented by Chinese Vice Premier Liu He in a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
on 30 September 2019. The presentation was followed by a reception hosted by Premier Li Keqiang which was broadcast on national Chinese television. Recipients of the award have included
Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
winners and leading scientists, but it is rare for it to be given to someone from the media industry.


Death

Moody died, aged 60, on 27 June 2021 in his Beijing apartment. He had lived with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis for more than three years. After his death, Kerry Brown, a professor of Chinese studies and director of the Lau China Institute at King's College London, said Moody was "committed to communication, to being open-minded and presenting ideas and issues about China in English clearly, so that a wider audience could...engage with them, even if they didn't agree...He will be a huge loss to those who are working hard on the dialogue between China and the outside world." Wang Huiyao, president of the Center for China and Globalization in Beijing, who knew Moody for nearly a decade, referred to him as "Edgar Snow in the New Era". He described him as: "An Englishman who comes a long way to China, strives to report the real China to the world, and finally dies here. I'm greatly touched by his spirit of internationalism."


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moody, Andrew People from Retford Alumni of Coventry University English journalists English columnists People educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Retford 1960 births 2021 deaths