NY Times hires Pierson to cover China, moves Buckley to Taiwan

The New York Times has appointed David Pierson to the post of China correspondent. Pierson joined from The Los Angeles Times, where he spent 22 years.

During his tenure at the Times, Pierson worked on nearly every desk, including Business, Metro and International, and also served as the paper’s China business correspondent and Southeast Asia correspondent.

He also worked part-time at Newsday.

“David is a total pro: sharp eye for stories, smooth writer, generous with colleagues and absolutely drama-free. And he’s a Mets fan, so he’s got a great sense of humor,” said Shashank Bengali, an editor on Live in London, who worked with David at the Los Angeles Times.

Pierson has a B.S. in journalism from St. John’s University.

Chris Buckley, a senior correspondent will be headed to Taiwan later this year. Previously, Buckley was based in Hong Kong and Beijing, from where he was expelled.

He was a senior correspondent at Reuters and from September 1998 to September 2005, he worked as a researcher, translator and reporter at The New York Times.

Buckley has a B.A. from the University of Sydney and a PhD. from the Australian National University.

You can congratulate Pierson and Buckley on Twitter.