Michael Forsythe

Forsythe received his bachelor's degree in economics from Georgetown University.^[2] He also studied Chinese there.^[3]

From 1990 to 1997, Forsythe served as an officer in the U.S. Navy, mostly in the Pacific.^[2][3] In 1999, he received a master's degree in East Asian area studies from Harvard University.^[2] He also studied Chinese at Tsinghua University.^[2]

Beginning in 2000, Forsythe was a reporter for Kyodo News in Beijing.^[3] As of 2012^[update] he was a reporter for Bloomberg News in Beijing.^[2] He later reported from Washington, D.C. for Bloomberg.^[3] He joined the New York Times investigations team in 2017 while living in Hong Kong.^[3]

In 2013, Forsythe was part of a team that won the George Polk Award for a series of reports titled "Revolution to Riches," investigating wealth among Chinese leaders' relatives.^[4] In 2023, he and Walt Bogdanich received the IRE Award for their book When McKinsey Comes to Town.^[5]

As of 2026^[update], Forsythe is based in New York City; he is married to China scholar Leta Hong Fincher.^[2][3]

• with Walt Bogdanich. When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm (Penguin Random House, 2022)^[6]
• with Henry Sanderson. China's Superbank: Debt, Oil and Influence - How China Development Bank is Rewriting the Rules of Finance (Wiley, 2013)^[7]