Reporting in China

Reporting in China

Anyone who follows China news will recognise the familiar theme of this story — a government-backed land seizure to make way for a more profitable project -- better real estate.

Those who are now landless are not adequately compensated. They voice their grievances, and are punished for their complaints.

An unremarkable story in so far as how often this happens in China, but it is remarkable how difficult it can be to get any information in these situations.

Authorities knew before we arrived we’d be there. I don’t know how they would know. Maybe one of the people we planned to speak to had his phones tapped.

In any case, our driver became more and more skittish as we got closer to this town in Yong Shan County, Yunnan Province. He’d received a call from a friend, who’d been approached by police, asking for the license plate numbers of his vehicle.

In the shadows

We arrived at night, and decided the best strategy would be to meet these landless farmers as soon as possible. We called them 30 minutes before we got into town - short notice - but the best way to make sure authorities would not physically prevent us from speaking to our interviewees.

We met Mr. Ma Guoming. At his door, a group of his friends had gathered to wait for us. But, our producer noticed a man in the shadows who abruptly walked away. Next, he was on the phone.

We asked Mr. Ma if he recognised the man. Mr. Ma said he was a plainclothes officer from the Public Security Bureau (China’s police department). Suddenly — it meant we had to hurry with our interview.

An hour later, we’d finished and had checked into our hotel for the night.

Eating a late night dinner, an apologetic restaurant manager told us there were police outside waiting for us. We invited them in, and they explained they were there to see what we were up to, and how they could help.

In China, you provide your passport every time you check into a hotel. Hotel staff are required to pass on relevant information to the Public Security Bureau. In this case, our passports showed we held journalist visas in China. Foreign media. So the police showed up.

We decided to meet Mr. Ma again in the morning — very early. With more time, we spoke to him for longer, trying to understand his situation.

Mr. Ma’s income before the dam project was about $1,500 USD a year. He now makes a tenth of that.

Each orange tree in his orchard produced $75 USD worth of oranges a year. But under the government compensation plan, authorities seized his land and offered $7 USD per orange tree destroyed.

Even more frustrating — authorities refuse to hire local villagers such as Mr. Ma as construction workers on the dam, bringing in hired hands from other provinces, instead.

Foreign distrust

Halfway through our interview, someone started banging on his metal door. Bang! Bang! Bang! It was a plainclothes officer. And a few minutes later, peeping out the window, two police vehicles stood outside.

We quickly finished the interview, and slipped out the back door. But, even as we drove away, I noticed a green van following us. Sometimes, you don’t know if you’re simply paranoid, or if it’s the real thing. But returning to our hotel, our vehicle pulled up, and the green van pulled up, as well.

Reporting in China is a unique experience. Much of the time, local officials follow us around simply because foreign journalists are unfamiliar territory — and what’s unknown can be scary.

Why have we come? What will we do? Some Chinese might not even have ever seen a foreigner in their entire lives.

Sometimes it is curiosity. It doesn’t help that there’s a general narrative perpetuated in the country of viewing foreigners as untrustworthy. Part of it is historical. China’s history the last couple of hundred years have been one foreign country manipulating it after another.

But other times, local officials simply don’t want us there, they don’t like the report we are working on, and they will stop us. Physically, if need be. The problem is, you never know which one it is. So we always have to be careful.