In 1985 she went to
China to teach
English and
Economics at
Yantai and
Chongqing Universities. On her return to
Britain a year later she managed a small film company. For six years from January 2008, she was the main morning presenter for the
BBC News Channel on Tuesdays – Fridays alongside
Simon McCoy. She is also a presenter for the
BBC World Service programme
The Interview. Highlights of her career include covering the death of
Deng Xiaoping and the handover of
Hong Kong in 1997. Gracie also appeared in the
This World programme. She presented a programme entitled "The Fastest Changing Place on Earth". This followed three villages in China over six years as they became subject to an
urbanisation scheme by the Chinese government. The programme was broadcast on 5 March 2012. in 2008|alt=|leftIn an earlier series of features for BBC World News (TV) and
BBC World Service (radio), she had tracked the process of power changes, migration, changing work/educational options and land redevelopment in a single southeastern Chinese village: this series of reports from
White Horse village (the place name appearing in the titles of the various parts of the project) aired between ca 2006 and 2008. The first report won a
Peabody Awards. A follow-up came in 2015. In December 2013, she was appointed BBC News' first editor for China based in Beijing. She resigned from this post at the end of December 2017/beginning of January 2018, citing pay discrimination over gender for the BBC's international editors. Her pay was £92,000 in 2009 and it was £135,000 in 2017, but she said the dispute was about parity and not about the amount.
Jeremy Bowen, the BBC Middle East editor, earned somewhere between £150,000 and £199,000, while North American editor
Jon Sopel earned somewhere between £200,000 and £249,000. The BBC had offered a 33% pay rise but, according to Gracie, had failed to offer equal pay. The dispute occurred against a background of complaints about excessive pay for some employees of the publicly funded BBC. The BBC stated it had "inadvertently" underpaid her by £100,000 because the senior journalist was “in development.” Gracie returned to her former post in the BBC newsroom on a salary of £145,000. the BBC agreed to give her years of back pay and to pay her equally with male presenters. Gracie donated the full amount of £361,000 to the Equal Pay Advice Service and the Fawcett Society. In 2018 Gracie took months of unpaid leave in order to take on writing and speaking engagements about both China and gender equality. She returned to work at the BBC News Channel and BBC World News afterwards. On 25 August 2020, Gracie announced via her Twitter profile that she had presented for the last time and would be leaving the BBC to pursue other interests. ==Personal life==