–
–
Fermented snail noodles have become extraordinarily popular.
Emily Feng, correspondent for US public radio NPR, decided to report on it. Light stuff full of flavor and local color, nothing controversial.
But suddenly, all the people who had agreed to be interviewed became reluctant. Some didn’t want to talk anymore. Police, the reporter said last month, were tracking his whereabouts.
That’s for the snail noodles. So imagine when it comes to the repression of Uyghurs – Mme Feng reported from the Xinjiang region.
The accounts of foreign correspondents in China almost all go in the same direction: ever-increasing restrictions, surveillance, threats to sources, diplomatic pressure in the countries of origin… When it’s not outright visa revocation.
I meet Pablo Díez at the Beijing 2022 Media Center. He’s in the bubble like everyone else, but the rest of the time he lives 40 minutes by metro from here. The 47-year-old Spanish journalist arrived in Beijing in 2004, for the daily ABC.
“I arrived for the adventure, a bit like landing by parachute,” he says. The Western media was beginning to pay more attention to China. I immediately met very nice Chinese people, who welcomed me into their home, and who became my second family.
“From 2004 to 2012 was the golden age of Chinese openness. There was a cultural, social and economic ferment in Beijing, it was extraordinary. People came here from all over China and all over the world. »
He saw the city transform before his eyes at a speed never seen in human history.
“On my own street in the center east, the tallest building was 20 stories high in 2005. Every day when I come home from work, it’s as if I see modern China being built. Now next to my house is the Citic (China Zun) Tower, which is 109 stories high. And many others. The small restaurants, the old houses have disappeared. The infrastructures appeared with incredible rapidity. I made the first TGV Beijing-Shanghai trip; today, China has the largest rapid train network in the world. »
* * *
If some are nostalgic for old China, this economic development has nonetheless improved the standard of living of a large part of the population.
In those very recent times, journalists traveled without restrictions. China wanted to show off its new modern and confident face.
But while economic and technological China advanced, political China quietly went the other way.
In 2005, an explosion at the PetroChina plant caused 100 tons of benzene to spill into the Songhua River. One of the country’s worst environmental disasters. Tens of millions of people have been deprived of drinking water, and pollutants have affected waterways in Russia and as far as the Sea of Japan.
“I went to Harbin and there I went by boat with two Chinese public health inspectors. I took all the pictures I wanted while they collected samples and showed me the level of pollutants. It would be completely unimaginable now. »
Similarly, in 2009, when inter-ethnic violence broke out in Urumqi (there was talk of 200 dead), in Xinjiang, between Uyghur Muslims and members of the Han Chinese dominant ethnic group, journalists could go and question inhabitants.
Now, contrary to popular belief, getting to Xinjiang is easy (sanitary restrictions aside). But once returned, impossible to talk to anyone.
“The last time I went there, four or five officers were waiting for me at the hotel and following me. People are afraid to talk to strangers, they know it can get them in trouble. If we have a fixer [interprète et aide au journaliste], he will have problems. We have to meet him on the sly, if he agrees to work. »
When the coronavirus first appeared in Wuhan, it was impossible to talk to anyone, to go anywhere. “Even in the hospital or the funeral home. To go to the cemetery, I showed up with a bouquet of flowers and they followed me to the grave of the one I said I wanted to visit. »
According to him, moreover, the longer we delay demonstrating the link between the human, the intermediary animal (pangolin?) and the virus, the more the hypothesis of a laboratory accident takes on value.
But back to his job…
***
At the same time, on social networks, the communist power unleashes its trolls and robots against the slightest criticism of the government. “That, I expect,” said Pablo Díez. But what troubles me the most is the Spaniards who use Twitter to attack journalists like me while Twitter is censored in China. Their motivation is often simply a form of anti-Americanism. »
When he wrote that Xi Jinping was leading a dictatorship, his newspaper’s website (abc.es) was immediately censored in China. The Chinese embassy in Madrid published a virulent denunciation of the journalist’s “lies”, with his name at the top.
“It has become very difficult to work, but we always end up finding people brave enough to talk to us, to denounce injustices, often openly. Many people still have to hide. »
***
PHOTO PHIL NOBLE, REUTERS
Xi Jinping at the opening ceremony of the Olympics
–
So what happened to make the country close? While China has practiced subtle, influential diplomacy, it floods the media with aggressive messages with its “wolf warrior” diplomacy.
It happened… when Xi Jinping came to power in 2012. “Until then, China was a collective dictatorship, where the different factions of the Communist Party had to make compromises. When Mao died [en 1976], the party feared a one-man takeover. Terms of office lasted no more than 10 years. »
Xi has changed that, and will seek re-election as president in October at the Communist Party congress. Some analysts say that the game is not won, but Diez is among those who think it’s already over: he carried out massive purges in the party, including at the highest level, where around thirty leaders were sacked, especially in anti-corruption campaigns.
“It is now a personal dictatorship, and as in a sect, any criticism is inadmissible. Xi is raising nationalist fever, and fighting Western cultural influence. Imagine, in 2008, I attended a pop concert in the Great Hall of the People! The building, located in Tiananmen Square, is a mythical place of the Chinese Communist Party, where major political assemblies are held.
Now the atmosphere is leaden. TV presents series celebrating historical heroes (a law criminalizes attacking their memory, by the way); one on the war against Japan is a hit. The most popular movie last year was The Battle of Changjin Lake , a three-hour film about the Korean War, where the Americans play the wrong role. Commissioned by the Ministry of Propaganda, which refined its methods, it was the highest-grossing film in the world after Spider-Man.
The profession of foreign correspondent has therefore lost many of its charms, says Pablo. He is also returning to Spain “because[hismotheris83yearsold”[samèrea83 ans »
So much for the snail noodles.
–
–
–
Fermented snail noodles have become extraordinarily popular.
Emily Feng, correspondent for US public radio NPR, decided to report on it. Light stuff full of flavor and local color, nothing controversial.
But suddenly, all the people who had agreed to be interviewed became reluctant. Some didn’t want to talk anymore. Police, the reporter said last month, were tracking his whereabouts.
That’s for the snail noodles. So imagine when it comes to the repression of Uyghurs – Mme Feng reported from the Xinjiang region.
The accounts of foreign correspondents in China almost all go in the same direction: ever-increasing restrictions, surveillance, threats to sources, diplomatic pressure in the countries of origin… When it’s not outright visa revocation.
I meet Pablo Díez at the Beijing 2022 Media Center. He’s in the bubble like everyone else, but the rest of the time he lives 40 minutes by metro from here. The 47-year-old Spanish journalist arrived in Beijing in 2004, for the daily ABC.
“I arrived for the adventure, a bit like landing by parachute,” he says. The Western media was beginning to pay more attention to China. I immediately met very nice Chinese people, who welcomed me into their home, and who became my second family.
“From 2004 to 2012 was the golden age of Chinese openness. There was a cultural, social and economic ferment in Beijing, it was extraordinary. People came here from all over China and all over the world. »
He saw the city transform before his eyes at a speed never seen in human history.
“On my own street in the center east, the tallest building was 20 stories high in 2005. Every day when I come home from work, it’s as if I see modern China being built. Now next to my house is the Citic (China Zun) Tower, which is 109 stories high. And many others. The small restaurants, the old houses have disappeared. The infrastructures appeared with incredible rapidity. I made the first TGV Beijing-Shanghai trip; today, China has the largest rapid train network in the world. »
* * *
If some are nostalgic for old China, this economic development has nonetheless improved the standard of living of a large part of the population.
In those very recent times, journalists traveled without restrictions. China wanted to show off its new modern and confident face.
But while economic and technological China advanced, political China quietly went the other way.
In 2005, an explosion at the PetroChina plant caused 100 tons of benzene to spill into the Songhua River. One of the country’s worst environmental disasters. Tens of millions of people have been deprived of drinking water, and pollutants have affected waterways in Russia and as far as the Sea of Japan.
“I went to Harbin and there I went by boat with two Chinese public health inspectors. I took all the pictures I wanted while they collected samples and showed me the level of pollutants. It would be completely unimaginable now. »
Similarly, in 2009, when inter-ethnic violence broke out in Urumqi (there was talk of 200 dead), in Xinjiang, between Uyghur Muslims and members of the Han Chinese dominant ethnic group, journalists could go and question inhabitants.
Now, contrary to popular belief, getting to Xinjiang is easy (sanitary restrictions aside). But once returned, impossible to talk to anyone.
“The last time I went there, four or five officers were waiting for me at the hotel and following me. People are afraid to talk to strangers, they know it can get them in trouble. If we have a fixer [interprète et aide au journaliste], he will have problems. We have to meet him on the sly, if he agrees to work. »
When the coronavirus first appeared in Wuhan, it was impossible to talk to anyone, to go anywhere. “Even in the hospital or the funeral home. To go to the cemetery, I showed up with a bouquet of flowers and they followed me to the grave of the one I said I wanted to visit. »
According to him, moreover, the longer we delay demonstrating the link between the human, the intermediary animal (pangolin?) and the virus, the more the hypothesis of a laboratory accident takes on value.
But back to his job…
***
At the same time, on social networks, the communist power unleashes its trolls and robots against the slightest criticism of the government. “That, I expect,” said Pablo Díez. But what troubles me the most is the Spaniards who use Twitter to attack journalists like me while Twitter is censored in China. Their motivation is often simply a form of anti-Americanism. »
When he wrote that Xi Jinping was leading a dictatorship, his newspaper’s website (abc.es) was immediately censored in China. The Chinese embassy in Madrid published a virulent denunciation of the journalist’s “lies”, with his name at the top.
“It has become very difficult to work, but we always end up finding people brave enough to talk to us, to denounce injustices, often openly. Many people still have to hide. »
***
PHOTO PHIL NOBLE, REUTERS
Xi Jinping at the opening ceremony of the Olympics
–
So what happened to make the country close? While China has practiced subtle, influential diplomacy, it floods the media with aggressive messages with its “wolf warrior” diplomacy.
It happened… when Xi Jinping came to power in 2012. “Until then, China was a collective dictatorship, where the different factions of the Communist Party had to make compromises. When Mao died [en 1976], the party feared a one-man takeover. Terms of office lasted no more than 10 years. »
Xi has changed that, and will seek re-election as president in October at the Communist Party congress. Some analysts say that the game is not won, but Diez is among those who think it’s already over: he carried out massive purges in the party, including at the highest level, where around thirty leaders were sacked, especially in anti-corruption campaigns.
“It is now a personal dictatorship, and as in a sect, any criticism is inadmissible. Xi is raising nationalist fever, and fighting Western cultural influence. Imagine, in 2008, I attended a pop concert in the Great Hall of the People! The building, located in Tiananmen Square, is a mythical place of the Chinese Communist Party, where major political assemblies are held.
Now the atmosphere is leaden. TV presents series celebrating historical heroes (a law criminalizes attacking their memory, by the way); one on the war against Japan is a hit. The most popular movie last year was The Battle of Changjin Lake, a three-hour film about the Korean War, where the Americans play the wrong role. Commissioned by the Ministry of Propaganda, which refined its methods, it was the highest-grossing film in the world after Spider-Man.
The profession of foreign correspondent has therefore lost many of its charms, says Pablo. He is also returning to Spain “because[hismotheris83yearsold”[samèrea83 ans »
So much for the snail noodles.
–
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