@nytimes reporter covering China and Asia, but mostly China. Got a tip? alexandra.stevenson@nytimes.com GPG
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Going through my dad's reporter notebooks from his first trip to China in 1954, when it was newly Communist and closed off to the world. I'd like to share some thoughts. Most jarring is the sudden reality that his prospects for reporting in China were better than mine today.. 1/7
His observations reveal the early days of mass propaganda on a scale the world had never seen before. There was the official who proudly talked about the Communist Party’s view of information as a “battlefield of the mind”... 2
And the People's Daily editor he met who filled the foreign page with turgid reports of Communist activities, unless there was an opportunity to quote a western story to stoke anger over foreign imperialism ..3
On his two month trip, he was pushed around by stiff and unsmiling contacts who "appeared to go to undue lengths to put difficulties in my way." There were overly scripted tours, the constant minders, the feeling that when he left, his brain had been in a deep freeze .. 4
But he also met many ordinary people who shrugged off heavy-handed officials. These people made him laugh and filled him with the kind of optimism that any reporter today will recognize in cynical and often hilarious conversations with laobaixing in cities like Beijing ..5
He was moved to admiration and filled with indignation. China, he wrote, was such a large country that it defied any one broad brush statement. “And yet, under the current leadership, the way in which the government silences alternative points of view makes it hard not to" .. 6
It's this line that keeps repeating in my head today as I think about the implications of China's decision to expel so many of hardworking, talented and dedicated correspondents.. 7
Never seen before? In 1954?
This one bring a chill up my spine. Born and raised in Cuba. I grew up w the term “Batalla de Ideas” which is the Spanish translation for “battle of ideas” pretty close, right? I think the term is attributed to Karl Marx. I guess it’s the same playbook.
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