Jonathan Watts is the China correspondent for the UK Guardian. With 1/5th of humanity on the move and the entire global economy reshaping itself around it, what’s happening in China today is likely to be the story of the century. For the past three years Jonathan Watts has traveled extensively throughout China during this period of immense change. From remote mountain communities in Tibet and Yunnan, across the jungles of Sichuan and the deserts of Inner Mongolia, to the industrial and commercial heartlands of Guangdong, Zhejiang and Shanghai, he has interviewed hundreds of people whose lives have been transformed. People such as a caterpillar fungus collector, a cave dweller, 90-year-old Red Army veterans, a sex blogger, a North Korean woman sold as a wife, hookers, migrant workers, and countless others.

The most valuable piece of advice Jonathan ever received was just before he started working for the Guardian in 1996, as he was about to head off to Tokyo to take up a freelance assignment and had earnestly suggested to the foreign editor that one of his first stories should be about an upper house election. "Don't worry too much about politics. It's all crap," he said. "Look at individuals, not policies or statistics. Listen to personal stories, not slogans or speeches. Never forget that journalism is about people." There are more people in China than any other country so Jonathan considers himself in the ideal place for a correspondent. The Guardian has been particularly good about letting him travel widely and spend time on long, detailed stories, including some on very sensitive topics such as the Henan AIDS scandal, land seizures in Guangdong and wife-smuggling across the North Korean border. This helped Jon reach the shortlist for correspondent of the year in the UK press awards this March.

Jon often sees events from a regional perspective, having covered Japan from 1996 to 2003 and having visited North Korea more often than almost any other foreign reporter in the past four years. He speaks basic Mandarin and near fluent Japanese. Jon is a founding member of the Press Freedom Committee of the Foreign Correspondents Club of China, and helped to establish a network of similar organizations throughout East Asia, including playing an active role in the campaign to open up Japan's press clubs in 2002-03.