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Frank Langfitt

Frank Langfitt is NPR's Shanghai Correspondent. He covers the epic story of China's economic rise and its implications at home and abroad for Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Talk of the Nation and Planet Money. Along with Beijing Correspondent Louisa Lim, he also covers Japan and the Koreas.

Before moving to China, Langfitt was NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi. He covered Somalia's civil war from the front-lines in Mogadishu, where he learned to run fast in Kevlar. He interviewed cattle rustlers in South Sudan and chatted up imprisoned Somali pirates, who insisted they were just misunderstood fishermen. During the Arab spring, Langfitt covered the uprising and crushing of the reform movement in Bahrain.

Prior to Africa, Langfitt was a labor correspondent based in Washington, D.C. He covered the 2008 financial crisis, roamed the hills of West Virginia investigating coal mine disasters and worked the union halls of Detroit as General Motors and Chrysler collapsed into bankruptcy.

Shanghai is Langfitt's second posting in China. Before coming to NPR, he spent five years as a correspondent in Beijing for The Baltimore Sun. During that time, he covered the Hong Kong handover, the fall of Suharto in Indonesia and reported from Taiwan, South Korea and Vietnam. In the opening days of the Afghan War, Langfitt also reported from Pakistan and Kashmir.

In 2008, Langfitt covered the Beijing Olympics as a member of NPR's team, which won an Edward R. Murrow Award for sports reporting. Langfitt's print and visual journalism have also been honored by the Overseas Press Association and the White House News Photographers Association.

Langfitt spent his early years in journalism stringing for the Philadelphia Inquirer and living in Hazard, Kentucky, where he covered the state's Appalachian coalfields for the Lexington Herald-Leader. Before becoming a reporter, Langfitt drove a taxi in Philadelphia and dug latrines in Mexico. Langfitt is a graduate of Princeton and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard.

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Mongolia Booms
2:21 am
Wed May 23, 2012

Mongolians Scramble For A Share Of Mining Wealth

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Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Tseren-ochir is a superintendent at Oyu Tolgoi mine who goes by the name "Augie" because it's easier for the foreigners he works with to pronounce. He is overseeing workers digging a nearly 5,000-foot-deep shaft down to reach the copper ore.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Oxidized copper (visible here in one area of Oyu Tolgoi's open-pit mine) gave the mine in the southern Gobi region its name, which means "Turquoise Hill".
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Oyu Tolgoi offers remarkable opportunities for young Mongolians such as Ooarnkoyar Maikhuu, a 22-year-old single mother who drives a 60-ton dump truck.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Trucks haul massive loads of dirt along an Oyu Tolgoi road.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
A group of Chinese workers takes a smoke break at Oyu Tolgoi. The company has imported thousands of skilled Chinese workers to help finish the mine infrastructure.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Tseren-ochir, in his mid-30s, is a mine superintendent at Oyu Tolgoi. He is supervising workers as they dig a nearly 5,000-foot-deep shaft down to the copper ore.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
At the mine camp, workers relax by playing basketball.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Life is hard for the workers, who must spend weeks away from their families and where temperatures drop to 40 below zero in winter and soar to 135 in summer.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Mine workers play table tennis inside a Quonset hut.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Kitchen workers take a break after the morning rush at the cafeteria, which feeds thousands of workers every day.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Some Mongolians who can't find work with the mines are striking out on their own, as has this group of gold prospectors who line a valley in the South Gobi hills.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Digging for gold is technically illegal. But many Mongolians do it anyway when they hear of a strike to supplement their incomes.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Prospectors typically dig a hole — in this case, 3-to-5-feet deep — to get at the soil. They then sift the soil, using a blower to separate the dust from the gold.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
A prospector shows off the results of two days of labor — a good-sized palmful of pure gold nuggets.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Rich in copper, coal and gold, Mongolia is in the midst of a mineral boom. This marks a major change for a country where two out of every five people herd livestock.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Some Mongolians are striking out on their own. This kind of mining is technically illegal, but many Mongolians do it in order to supplement their incomes. A prospector in the South Gobi shows off the results of two days of labor — a good-sized palmful of pure gold nuggets.
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Originally published on Wed May 30, 2012 4:18 pm

Mongolia, the land of Genghis Khan and nomadic herders, is in the midst of a remarkable transition. Rich in coal, gold and copper, this country of fewer than 3 million people in Central Asia is riding a mineral boom that is expected to more than double its GDP within a decade. The rapid changes simultaneously excite and unnerve many Mongolians, who hope mining can help pull many out of poverty, but worry it will ravage the environment and further erode the nation's distinctive, nomadic identity.

Third of four parts

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Asia
2:21 am
Tue May 22, 2012

Mongolia's Dilemma: Who Gets The Water?

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Credit John Poole / NPR
Amin-Erdene Galkhuu pumps well water to her family's Bactrian camels in Mongolia's South Gobi region. Herders and mining firms both need water in this arid area.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
South Gobi is made up mostly of herders who graze their animals in this arid land. The herders fear too much water will be lost to mining.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Mijiddorj Ayur (right) sits with his extended family outside his house in South Gobi. He wears traditional clothes, including boots with curled-up toes.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
A construction crew works on a section of an underground water pipe and wellhead the Oyu Tolgoi mine is building along the dirt "highway" in South Gobi.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Ex-herders work at a makeshift truck stop for mining trucks. Most say their water supply dried up, leaving them no choice but to sell their animals.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
These roads lead to Oyu Tolgoi's mine (visible in the distance). Within five years, the gold and copper mine is expected to be the third-largest in the world.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Khishigdelger Adiya surveys the land around her home. She stands near what she described as a "sacred well" that has recently gone dry.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
A camel stands at a dried-up sacred well near the house of herder Khishigdelger Adiya. There's white salt where water used to flow.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
This small lake, which has recently receded, is one of the few permanent bodies of water in South Gobi. The government recently reversed a ban on using the aquifer underneath.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Herder Bat-Erdene Badam's mother. Khishigdelger Adiya, surveys the land around her home. She stands near what she described as a "sacred well" that has recently gone dry.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Amin-Erdene Galkhuu pumps well water to her family's Bactrian camels in Mongolia's South Gobi region. Herders and mining firms both need water in this arid area.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Once a wetland — one of the very few in the Gobi — this area has been drying up over the past several years, thanks to rising temperatures and lower rainfall.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Herder Mijiddorj Ayur, 76, stands outside his home in South Gobi, Mongolia. He worries about the effects a local mine will have on his livelihood.
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Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 9:47 am

Mongolia, the land of Genghis Khan and nomadic herders, is in the midst of a remarkable transition. Rich in coal, gold and copper, this country of fewer than 3 million people in Central Asia is riding a mineral boom that is expected to more than double its GDP within a decade. The rapid changes simultaneously excite and unnerve many Mongolians, who hope mining can help pull many out of poverty, but worry it will ravage the environment and further erode the nation's distinctive, nomadic identity.

Second of four parts

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Asia
1:59 am
Mon May 21, 2012

Mineral-Rich Mongolia Rapidly Becoming 'Minegolia'

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Credit John W. Poole / NPR
The mine at Oyu Tolgoi, Turquoise Hill in Mongolian, will be one of the world's largest copper mines in about five years. An employee holds up a small sample of the oxidized copper that gave the mine its name.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
The country's mineral riches — copper, gold and coal — are bringing new wealth to Mongolia. The illuminated storefront at the bottom left is a Louis Vuitton shop in downtown Ulan Bator.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Passengers wait for trains at Ulan Bator's central station. Mongolians are flocking to the mines in search of better-paying jobs.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
The mining industry is also fueling new construction. Laborers work on a construction site on the outskirts of Ulan Bator.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Oyu Tolgoi, a massive mine in Mongolia's South Gobi province, begins producing copper ore in June, 2012. Within five years, it's expected to become the world's third largest copper mine. An employee at Oyu Tolgoi — which means "Turquoise Hill" — holds up a chunk of oxidized copper.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Even while it was under construction, Oyu Tolgoi accounted for about 30 percent of Mongolia's GDP, according to mine officials. But many Mongolians are wary of how the mining explosion has begun to affect their country, where two out of every five people are herdsmen.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
In South Gobi province, a local politician (right) and a herder sit inside a traditional yurt, or ger, and discuss the lack of water in the area. Herdsmen worry that mines — which require massive amounts of water to process ore — will deplete already diminishing supplies.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Most Mongolians live in gers, traditional housing that can be taken down and reassembled in under an hour. Many have solar panels and satellite dishes.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
The cowboys in Mongolia — where horses were first domesticated — are considered some of the best horsemen in the world. Mongolian horses are shorter and furrier than Western versions. It's another part of traditional Mongolian life that is fading away.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
For centuries, Mongolians have relied on herding for their livelihood, depending on animals such as these cashmere goats and sheep for food, fuel and income.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Mutton is a staple of the Mongolian diet. A woman buys meat from a butcher in Ulan Bator's central market.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
The herdsmen's livestock also supply Mongolia's cashmere manufacturers, traditionally one of the country's main industries. At the Gobi cashmere factory in Ulan Bator, workers sort through newly arrived piles of goat fur, sorting by color and texture.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
A seamstress performs delicate work on a piece of cashmere cloth at the Gobi factory. The cashmere industry is also feeling the effects of mining — as inflation has driven up the cost of raw materials, and water shortages and shrinking pastureland threaten herds.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
The circular machines on the factory floor are used to make ribbed cloth and sweaters.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
So-called ger villages — actually a mix of yurts and more permanent shelters — spread out onto the hills surrounding Ulan Bator. Some plots are legally purchased; others are occupied by squatters. Most residents have left lives as herders to look for jobs in Mongolia's capital. One-third of Mongolia's population lives in Ulan Bator.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
A ger district resident walks the dusty streets on the outskirts of Ulan Bator. As Mongolia's mining industry continues to grow, the future of the country's traditional ways is unclear.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
The Central Asian nation of Mongolia is undergoing vast change, thanks to a booming mining industry. A guard in Ulan Bator, the capital, surveys central Sukhbaatar Square; behind him stands a giant statue of Genghis Khan, the country's founder.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Horses were first domesticated in the area that is Mongolia today. The original cowboys, Mongolians ride on wooden saddles and are some of the best horsemen in the world. They're a part of Mongolia's traditional culture, which is under pressure from the mining boom.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Clothing designer Ariunaa Suri works in her office at the Gobi cashmere company in Ulan Bator. Before mining, cashmere was Mongolia's main export.
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Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 9:47 am

Mongolia, the land of Genghis Khan and nomadic herders, is in the midst of a remarkable transition. Rich in coal, gold and copper, this country of fewer than 3 million people in Central Asia is riding a mineral boom that is expected to more than double its GDP within a decade. The rapid changes simultaneously excite and unnerve many Mongolians, who hope mining can help pull many out of poverty, but worry it will ravage the environment and further erode the nation's distinctive, nomadic identity.

First of four parts

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Asia
3:37 am
Tue May 1, 2012

China Suppresses Coverage Of Two News Stories

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Originally published on Tue May 1, 2012 9:05 am

Two stories out of China — the escape of a blind dissident from house arrest and the corruption scandal involving a top politician and his family — have attracted international attention. But inside China, the picture is different. The government has successfully suppressed the story about the dissident, Chen Guangcheng, such that most Chinese have never even heard of him. The Communist Party has waged a smear campaign against the fallen official, Bo Xilai, whom citizens see as a loser in a power struggle, a corrupt politician or both.

Asia
2:01 am
Wed April 25, 2012

Carmakers In China Rev Up As Industry Shifts East

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Credit AP
China is now the world's largest market for cars, and the Auto China 2012 car show is now taking place in Beijing. Here, the Denza electric car, a joint creation by Daimler and Chinese manufacturer BYD, is unveiled Monday.
Credit Peter Parks / AFP/Getty Images
A mechanic works on a Buick at a General Motors dealership in Shanghai last December. GM just announced it plans to open 600 additional dealerships in China. The company now sells more cars in China than it does in the United States.
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Originally published on Wed April 25, 2012 5:24 pm

The Beijing auto show runs this week in what is now the world's largest car market, and a crucial one for Detroit companies.

General Motors just announced it will open 600 more dealerships in China, where it sells more cars than it does in the U.S. Last week, Ford announced construction of its fourth Chinese assembly plant.

For longtime American auto executives in China, witnessing the shift in the global auto industry is dramatic.

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