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It was a reminder of the sad reality of reporting in China to the core.
As my family rushed to the airport late and improvised their suitcases at the last minute, the plainclothes police observed us outside our house, then followed us to the airport and back to the airport. at final check-in.
True to form all the way, China’s propaganda machine has been at full throttle, denying that I have faced any risks in China, yet making them very clear.
“The Foreign Office says it doesn’t know Sudworth was threatened,” the Communist Party-controlled Global Times newspaper said, “except that he could be sued by people in Xinjiang for his defamatory reporting.”
The deterrent effect of such statements lies in the reality of a justice system administered, like the media, as an extension of the Communist Party. With the idea of an independent judiciary described as “an imperfect Western notion”.
China’s foreign ministry continued the attacks, using the lectern at its daily press conference last Thursday to criticize what it called “fake news” from the BBC.
He released a video clip from our recent interview with Volkswagen in China about their decision to operate an auto plant in Xinjiang, suggesting that “this is the kind of report that has the Chinese people angry.”
Unlikely, of course, given that the vast majority of Chinese people cannot see any of our reports, which have been blocked for a long time.
But while my post led to a tense and disturbing ending, it’s worth remembering that mine is just the latest in a long list of foreign media in recent years.
And this is part of a much larger battle that China is waging in the global ideas and information space.
Media becomes a battleground
“Economic freedom creates habits of freedom,” former US President George W. Bush once said in a speech calling for China’s membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO).
“And the habits of freedom create expectations of democracy,” he continued.
This hopeful assumption that as China got richer it became freer could still be heard frequently in news analysis and academic discussions about China when I first started working. here in 2012.
But my arrival that year coincided with an event that made this prediction completely naive: Xi Jinping assumed the most powerful post in the country, that of general secretary of the Communist Party of China.
While the enormous transformation of global business models over the years has undoubtedly changed China, triggering a whirlwind of economic and social change, these expectations of democracy seem more distant than ever.
President Xi used China’s already rigid political system to tighten control over almost every aspect of society, and after 10 years in power (now without limits), it was the media landscape that became the focus of attention. battle defining the battlefield.
“Document No. 9”, allegedly high-level leak, identified from the outset the main objectives of this fight: “Western values”, including freedom of the press.
And, as the BBC’s experience shows, any foreign journalism exposing truths about the situation in Xinjiang, questioning China’s handling of the coronavirus and its origins, or giving opponents a voice on authoritarian plans for Hong Kong is now in the crosshairs.
Undermine democratic debate
But as China’s propaganda attacks continue following my departure, it’s also noteworthy that foreign social media is widely used to amplify the message.
The irony is, of course, that at the same time as the space for foreign journalism in China is shrinking, the Communist Party has invested heavily in its media strategy abroad, taking full advantage of the easy access to media. free and open media.
Its diplomatic “wolf warriors” spark storms of tweets, criticizing foreign reports, while denying their own citizens access to these same foreign platforms.
This is an intensive and coordinated strategy across multiple platforms, as a report by researchers from the Australian Institute for Strategic Policy shows.
Public media propagandists publish and publish their content abroad without restrictions, while at home, China restricts independent reporting, censors foreign broadcasts and websites, and blocks foreign journalists on their own social media.
In this context, my departure can be seen as a small part of an emerging and highly asymmetric battle for the control of ideas.
It is not a happy prospect for the free flow of good and accurate information.
Decreased access will erode our ability to understand what is really going on in China, which is harnessing the power of free press institutions to undermine democratic debate everywhere.
Footprints that lead to the truth
If there are no easy answers and President Bush’s idealism has long since evaporated, there is some hope.
Much of the information that has come to light in recent years about what is really going on in Xinjiang, although it has been called “false” by China, is based on its own internal documents and propaganda reports.
In the functioning of a system of mass incarceration, a modern digital superpower cannot avoid leaving traces on the Internet and the significant journalistic effort to uncover them will continue at a distance.
I join a growing number of foreign correspondents who are now forced to cover Chinese history from Taipei (Taiwan) or other cities in Asia and beyond.
And of course, even though they are few in number, there are courageous and determined members of the foreign press in China who remain determined to tell the story.
Most notably, within the increasingly tight limits of political controls, there are also some extraordinary Chinese citizens who, much to themselves, find a way around censorship to do the world’s most important job. your country in your own words.
Much of what we know about the early days of Wuhan’s shutdown comes from these citizen journalists, who are now paying the price for their bravery.
I leave the plainclothes police for the last time, I hope, in the departure lounge of a Beijing airport.
In the new global battle for ideas, we must never forget that it is Chinese citizens who continue to face the greatest risks in telling the truth.
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