Jing Yidan died on September 13, 2026. She was 71.
The Chinese television presenter spent nearly four decades in broadcasting, the bulk of it at China Central Television, where she anchored two of the network's most watched news programs.
Born in Harbin in April 1955, Jing graduated from the Communication University of China in 1979 and began her career the same year. She joined CCTV in 1988, moving from regional work to the national broadcaster at a moment when Chinese television news was expanding its formats and its reach.
At CCTV, Jing hosted Focus Report and Oriental Horizon. Focus Report, the investigative news program that became a fixture of Chinese evening television, made her a familiar face across the country. Oriental Horizon, a flagship news magazine that launched in the early 1990s, helped set the tone for Chinese broadcast journalism in that era. Her delivery, measured and direct, suited both programs' seriousness.
The two shows occupied different registers. Oriental Horizon brought a magazine-style approach to Chinese television news, mixing features with interviews and commentary. Focus Report went after specific cases, using on-camera investigation to address wrongdoing and official misconduct. Jing moved between them with the same steady presence, a constant in a medium that was changing quickly around her.
Her work earned repeated recognition. She won China's Golden Mike Award in 1993, 1995 and 1997, three wins in five years. The Golden Mike is among the highest honors in Chinese broadcasting, and winning it three times placed Jing in a small group of presenters.
Beyond the anchor desk, Jing held institutional roles. She served as vice president of the China Association of Radio and Television and was a delegate to the 9th National People's Congress, which sat from 1998 to 2003. Those positions put her inside the structures that governed Chinese media and politics, a combination common among senior broadcasters of her generation.
Her career traced the arc of Chinese television's transformation. When Jing began in 1979, CCTV was a limited operation reaching a fraction of the population. By the time she stepped back from regular hosting, the network ran dozens of channels and reached hundreds of millions of viewers. She worked through that expansion, moving from the edges of the profession to its center.
Jing belonged to a cohort of Chinese presenters who became household names in the 1990s, when television news consolidated its place as the main source of information for most Chinese households. The programs she hosted were appointment viewing. Their influence extended beyond news into the wider culture, setting standards for how public figures spoke and appeared on camera.
Her Golden Mike wins came at the height of that period. The award recognized not just technical skill but authority. In a system where the news anchor carried official weight, Jing's presence gave Focus Report and Oriental Horizon a stability that viewers came to expect.
She was also one of the more visible women in Chinese broadcasting leadership. Her vice presidency at the China Association of Radio and Television and her seat in the National People's Congress put her in rooms where media policy was set, an uncommon position for a presenter of her generation.
Jing's death removes one of the last active figures from that generation of CCTV anchors. Most of her contemporaries had already left the screen. The details of her death were not immediately released.
She was 71, born in Harbin in April 1955, and a graduate of the Communication University of China's class of 1979. She joined CCTV in 1988 and stayed. She won the Golden Mike Award three times. She served as vice president of the China Association of Radio and Television. She was a delegate to the 9th National People's Congress.
The programs she anchored are still on the air. The generation that built them is not.
According to Dead-People.