New | CCTV presenter Chai Jing "flew to the US to give birth to baby daughter"

A renowned CCTV reporter-turned-author is reported to have given birth to her first child in the United States.

Southern Entertainment Weekly reported this morning Chai Jing, a celebrity China Central Television reporter known for her outspoken blog, was seen before the Chinese New Year holiday at the baggage reclaim area in Beijing Capital International Airport with her newborn baby girl.

A source told Southern Entertainment Weekly Chai had already flown to America during last year’s National Day holiday and had been expected to give birth at the end of October.

Chai has had a low profile since July when her news magazine programme Insight was suspended, despite her first book becoming one of the top 10 bestsellers in the mainland last year.

“The programme will be suspended for a while due to CCTV’s special arrangement for the summer vacation,” the programme posted in its official microblog in July.

A source confirmed to Southern Entertainment Weekly in July that Chai had been pregnant for over six months and is married to renowned photographer Zhao Jia.

“It is unknown how she was able to pass the [security] checkpoint with a pregnant belly. But the halo of ‘the embodiment of press freedom and conscience’ and ‘the goddess of public intellectuals’ has probably granted her with a special access to an American Visa,” today's report reads.