A new report from the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) says investigative business journalism is improving in China, thanks in part to the efforts of the International Center For Journalists (ICFJ).

In 2007, ICFJ launched the Global Business Journalism Program at Tsinghua University in Beijing— the only program of its kind on the Chinese mainland.

Since the program started, “The business press has improved markedly,” ICFJ President Joyce Barnathan said in the CIMA report. “Business reporters ask tough questions now.”

The application process for the program, which is taught in English, is highly competitive. About 40 students from China and other countries are accepted annually. Graduates leave Tsinghua with crucial skills and connections that enhance their reporting careers.

Top business journalists teach in the program, and students have access to a lab with Bloomberg computer terminals that display up-to-the-minute financial data. The terminals normally are available only to industry experts.

The Global Business Journalism Program’s curriculum is supplemented with regular seminars, trips and hands-on workshops. The result is a student body that is grounded in the basics of global financial journalism and exposed to sophisticated research, reporting and storytelling techniques.

Jane Sasseen, executive director of the McGraw Center for Business Journalism at City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism, taught financial journalism at Tsinghua. She says Chinese authorities “understand they need more economically -literate reporters who can write about the economy… global trade and how the global economy works,”