Reporting on China is challenging and important. Assignment China tells the stories of some of the American journalists who have covered China from the time of the civil war of the 1940s through the COVID-19 pandemic. Former China correspondent Mike Chinoy assembles personal accounts from eminent journalists who share their stories of reporting on historic moments such as President Richard Nixon’s groundbreaking visit in 1972, China’s opening up to the outside world and its emergence as a global superpower, and the crackdowns in Tiananmen Square and Xinjiang. They describe the challenges of covering a complex society and offer insight into eight decades of tumultuous political, economic, and social change. In an interview conducted on March 22, 2023, Mike Chinoy and Lenora Chu discuss the people who have covered China for American media and how they have shaped American understanding of China.

0:00-3:30 background 

3:30-10:11  truth vs. fiction

10:11-18:09 pre- and post- Mao era media relations

18:09-31:43 Journalism in the Deng era, Tiananmen Square

31:43- How have journalism and narratives changed?

About the speakers: https://www.ncuscr.org/event/american-correspondents-in-china/

Read the transcript for this podcast

Follow Mike Chinoy on Twitter: @mikechinoy

Follow Lenora Chu on Twitter: @LenoraChu

About the speakersSubscribe to the National Committee on YouTube for video of this interview. Follow us on Twitter (@ncuscr) and Instagram (@ncuscr).