This thesis focuses on the discourse strategies investigative journalism uses to disclose social tensions in China. It delivers a theoretical framework for the understanding of investigative journalism in general and its Chinese counterpart in particular. Furthermore, the author elaborates on the possibilities, strategies and limitations of investigative journalism in China. Investigative stories that disclose three major social tensions in China were selected for analysis. These social tensions focus on “crimes against the underprivileged”, “abuse in education” and “desperate crimes”. Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) perceives these social tensions as a potential threat to its legitimacy of leadership, news about them are considered to be highly sensitive while at the same time useful in alerting the CCP to solve them. The research has found that most of the strategies used are “circumvention of value” and “interviewee opinion formation” followed by the strategy “open end”. However, Chinese investigative journalism has to toe a thin line in its practice.