NY Times hires Forsythe, former Bloomberg reporter

Michael Forsythe, the Bloomberg News reporter in China who left the news organization after allegedly leaking that it had held sensitive stories that might upset Chinese officials, has been hired by The New York Times.

The hiring was confirmed by Margaret Sullivan, the public editor of the Times, in her column for Sunday’s paper that was posted Saturday afternoon.

Forsythe was a 13-year veteran of Bloomberg News and specialized in documenting the nexus between wealth and politics in China. He moved to Hong Kong from Beijing after four years there as a senior reporter on the government team. While there, Bloomberg won the Polk Award (among many other awards) for documenting the wealth of relatives of Xi Jinping. He was the lead writer for that story.

Forsythe and Bloomberg reporter Henry Sanderson wrote a book, “China’s Superbank” that is available at bookstores and on Amazon. It’s a book about a bank, China Development Bank, but it’s really a book about China’s economy and society through the lens of what may be the world’s most powerful bank.

From November 2006 through January 2009, Forsythe was the team leader for U.S. government news in Washington, managing 43 editors and reporters covering the U.S. executive, legislative and judicial branches as well as politics.

He is a Navy veteran with a degree from Georgetown.