
Rob Schmitz
Rob Schmitz is NPR's international correspondent based in Berlin, where he covers the human stories of a vast region reckoning with its past while it tries to guide the world toward a brighter future. From his base in the heart of Europe, Schmitz has covered Germany's levelheaded management of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of right-wing nationalist politics in Poland and creeping Chinese government influence inside the Czech Republic.
Prior to covering Europe, Schmitz provided award-winning coverage of China for a decade, reporting on the country's economic rise and increasing global influence. His reporting on China's impact beyond its borders took him to countries such as Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand. Inside China, he's interviewed elderly revolutionaries, young rappers, and live-streaming celebrity farmers who make up the diverse tapestry of one of the most fascinating countries on the planet. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book Street of Eternal Happiness: Big City Dreams Along a Shanghai Road (Crown/Random House 2016), a profile of individuals who live, work, and dream along a single street that runs through the heart of China's largest city. The book won several awards and has been translated into half a dozen languages. In 2018, China's government banned the Chinese version of the book after its fifth printing. The following year it was selected as a finalist for the Ryszard Kapuściński Award, Poland's most prestigious literary prize.
Schmitz has won numerous awards for his reporting on China, including two national Edward R. Murrow Awards and an Education Writers Association Award. His work was also a finalist for the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award. His reporting in Japan — from the hardest-hit areas near the failing Fukushima nuclear power plant following the earthquake and tsunami — was included in the publication 100 Great Stories, celebrating the centennial of Columbia University's Journalism School. In 2012, Schmitz exposed the fabrications in Mike Daisey's account of Apple's supply chain on This American Life. His report was featured in the show's "Retraction" episode. In 2011, New York's Rubin Museum of Art screened a documentary Schmitz shot in Tibetan regions of China about one of the last living Tibetans who had memorized "Gesar of Ling," an epic poem that tells of Tibet's ancient past.
From 2010 to 2016, Schmitz was the China correspondent for American Public Media's Marketplace. He's also worked as a reporter for NPR Member stations KQED, KPCC and MPR. Prior to his radio career, Schmitz lived and worked in China — first as a teacher for the Peace Corps in the 1990s, and later as a freelance print and video journalist. He also lived in Spain for two years. He speaks Mandarin and Spanish. He has a bachelor's degree in Spanish literature from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, and a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
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The announcement was widely expected and has broad support in the country: A recent poll showed that about three-quarters of all Finns support joining the military alliance.
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As the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion, here's a look at abortion rights and access around the world.
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Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned peace is impossible under Russian dictatorship, saying "freedom and security will win the day, just as freedom and security triumphed over oppression, ... 77 years ago."
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The European Union says it intends to phase out Russian oil in the next few months. This was part of a package of new sanctions the EU announced Wednesday against Russia for its war in Ukraine.
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For nine years, I lived in a giant apartment complex called the Summit with hundreds of other people in the city of Shanghai. Now my old neighbors are entering week six stuck inside.
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NPR's Rob Schmitz talks with Hanna Bergholm, the director of the new horror movie 'Hatching,' in which a girl finds a mysterious egg in the woods and nurtures it until it hatches.
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NPR's Rob Schmitz talks with writer David de Jong about his new book that explores the relationship between Nazism and some of Germany's wealthiest families.
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Slovenia voted last weekend to oust Janez Jansa as their Prime Minister. NPR's Rob Schmitz talks with Judy Dempsey of Carnegie Europe on how that election reflects on European politics.
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NPR's Rob Schmitz speaks with two residents of a housing complex in Shanghai about how they have experienced the city's lockdown — which is approaching its sixth week.
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NPR's Rob Schmitz talks with David Whelan about his feelings about the release of Trevor Reese, while his brother Paul remains in a Russian prison on espionage charges.