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How did we prepare for the appointment
of a Communist Party leader in the Chinese
Congress?
We started planning this Congress at the start of 2022. We
wanted to describe what China was like 10 years after Xi
came to power, exploring as many facets as possible of mo
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dern-day China : its leader, Asia’s militarisation, how Chinese
people live in a civil society that is increasingly monitored.
We mobilised our bureaux in Asia but also from outside the
region. For example, our Los Angeles bureau interviewed an
employee of Bytedance, the company behind TikTok. We
wanted to offer the widest possible perspective on China.
But all this preparation, including meetings with our Bei-
jing bureau, took place during Covid, when travelling in
the country was completely forbidden. We had planned
for instance a road trip for photo, but it didn’t happen. We
couldn’t do any of the reportage outside Beijing in the end.
The pandemic severely curtailed our ability to diversify our
coverage.
Adding to this was the fact that 2022 saw a significant turno-
ver of staff in the area, which further complicated the task.
The Congress itself took place during zero
Covid
This dramatically reduced the number of accreditations In
the end we received very few both for our local and forei
gn reporters We had three staff text photo and video and
then four two photographers and two VJs for the closing
of the Congress
But the most important thing was that we were able to be
inside Journalists covering the Congress had to quarantine
for two or three days and then present a negative test on ar
rival The Chinese authorities set up a Covid bubble like for
the Olympics As accreditations came at the last moment
and you had to prove a negative test within 24 hours we
had staff testing themselves every day meaning they could
be ready if the authorities gave them the green light
How did the coverage of the event itself go?
We already knew the result and how it would be framed.
So we were paying particular attention to the speeches,
especially Xi Jinping’s. And we knew what the choreogra-
phy would be when Xi was re-appointed by the party: the
permanent committee would come on to the stage and Xi
would return to the room. That’s exactly what happened.
The State News Agency story confirming the reappointment
moved at the exact moment the doors opened. Everything
was set up in advance.
Except for the removal of former Communist Party Secreta-
ry General Hu Jintao.
It took us a while to realise that we had a video scoop and
we were the only ones to have it. We were inside. Leo Rami-
rez, our VJ, likes to start filming as soon as he’s set up, even
if nothing is happening. He was in the right place at the
right time, with the right line of sight. He was the only one
to get those images and they went viral. We got the whole
sequence that showed what had happened to the former
leader. It enabled us to determine whether he was escorted
towards the exit, or expelled, for example. We know that our
competitors tried to get these images In the end they ma
naged to buy them from a VJ working for a Chinese media
who was not able to publish his images But they were 15
hours behind us There was a lot of speculation over what
to make of this surreal scene One thing is sure the Chinese
Communist Party took a conscious decision to make the
move in front of the foreign journalists who had just ente
red the room when Hu Jintao was removed
CHINA
ANALYSIS
"It took us a while to realise that we had a video scoop and we were the
only ones to have it
.
"
MEHDI LEBOUACHERA
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
FOR ASIA-PACIFIC
KATELL ABIVEN
BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF
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China How does the
Chinese Communist
Party operate