37 •

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

-

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

China's President Xi Jinping (R)

sits besides Premier Li Keqiang

(2L) as former president Hu Jin-

tao (2R) is assisted to leave from

the closing ceremony of the

20th China's Communist Party's

Congress at the Great Hall of the

People in Beijing on October 22,

2022. © Noel Celis / AFP

It must be difficult being a journalist in Chi-

na these days?

It is extremely satisfying when coverage like that goes well

(with a scoop to boot) in such a restrictive context. All the

more so as the Chinese authorities are applying pressure

at every level. In addition to that was the Covid situation,

which provided them with the perfect excuse to prevent us

from going out and reporting

On the ground we are always closely watched It is even dif

ficult to do a vox pop close to the bureau which is located

in a business district An officer can appear from nowhere at

any moment and stop us filming There is widespread sus

picion of the foreign media accused by the authorities of

doing China down

But paradoxically we rarely get calls to complain about

what we have written If everything is well sourced and ba

lanced there is no problem On the other hand our sources

are quite often intimidated for example before an inter

view And of course electronic surveillance is everywhere

How did we cover the militarydiplomatic

crisis with Taiwan from Chinese territory

That is tricky It was even more tricky when Nancy Pelosi

then speaker of the US House of Representatives visited

Her trip sparked outrage in Beijing, which then launched

military exercises.

We decided to send a team to Xiamen, a port city on the sou-

theastern Chinese coast separated from Taiwan by a strait.

We got very good images of the exercises from the ground.

But the team was harassed by local authorities who belie-

ved we had no right to report on this crisis. No other media

had the idea to go to this city and we were the only ones

to have images of helicopters and live-fire exercises on the

coast with a bonus shot of sunbathing tourists

In China the best way to get information is to send journa

lists out into the field even if there is local pressure and so

cial media campaigns But the government itself does not

prevent us from filming or leaving Beijing when we want

How do you think this highly explosive cri

sis will play out

We are going to set up a contingency plan that will take

into account the different levels of possible tensions In

the event of massive military manoeuvres we will have to

plan logistics on the ground prepare the teams to work in a

hostile environment examine the best means of communi

cation Because it is possible the island will be completely

cordoned off if tension rises

China How does the

Chinese Communist

Party operate