— Reflections on the U.S.-China Security Dialogue Press Conference
(Jennifer Zeng’s note: This article and this photo were written and taken by me in 2018 when I was a Washington correspondent for the English edition of The Epoch Times. The day before yesterday, when I saw the news that Wei Fenghe (the CCP's former defence minister) had been sentenced to death with a reprieve, I suddenly remembered that I had personally taken his photo before. Now that he has received a suspended death sentence, this photo has naturally become a “one-of-a-kind” image. It made me reflect on the cruel irony of the CCP system: one day you are a high-ranking official, and the next day you may become a prisoner… So today, taking advantage of the weekend, I am posting this “one-of-a-kind” photo and this article here for everyone to “appreciate.”)
After the U.S.-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue on November 9, 2018, there was a joint U.S.-China press conference at the U.S. State Department. Because the dialogue took place during a highly “unusual” period in U.S.-China relations, media attention was enormous. When I arrived more than an hour early, I found at least several hundred reporters already lined up waiting.
Although I knew that under such circumstances the chance of getting to ask a question was slim, I still prepared four or five questions in advance. The thing I struggled with most was: if I only had one chance to ask a question, should I direct it to the American side or the Chinese side?
After several hundred reporters waited in line for more than an hour, going through countless twists and turns, up elevators, down elevators, and once again waiting in separate lines according to reporter categories (print reporters, photographers, radio reporters, etc.), we were finally allowed inside.
The press conference started somewhat later than expected. The four “main characters” — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, CCP Foreign Affairs Commission Director Yang Jiechi, and Defense Minister Wei Fenghe — each stood and delivered remarks.
The four speeches together took roughly 20 minutes. They were basically all official jargon, with nothing particularly new. But it was obvious that on many issues — the South China Sea, Taiwan, human rights, and so on — each side was still saying its own thing, and their fundamental positions remained sharply divided. Among the four, Yang Jiechi spoke the longest, about 10 minutes and 32 seconds. It was truly mind-numbingly boring.
At long last came the more “interesting” Q&A session (just think about
a couple of days earlier!) But as soon as the moderator began, he announced that only four reporters would get to ask questions, one question each. Then he immediately called on a reporter from Voice of America.
The VOA reporter immediately “broke the rules,” asking several questions in both English and Chinese to both the American and Chinese sides. All four “main characters” answered separately. Mattis and Pompeo used 29 seconds and 54 seconds respectively, while Yang Jiechi’s answer was once again the longest, lasting 3 minutes and 23 seconds. Wei Fenghe used 40 seconds.
Next, a Chinese-speaking moderator directly called on an Xinhua reporter. Her question was: “Could Minister Wei please introduce China’s current national defense policy and the present state of military relations between China and the United States?”
I thought to myself: Does that even count as a question?
Then I was astonished to discover that “Minister Wei’s” answer script had already been prepared. His so-called “answer,” just like his earlier remarks, was simply reading from a script!
Which meant everything had been arranged beforehand. He already knew what question the Xinhua reporter was going to ask.
“Minister Wei’s” answer lasted 3 minutes and 49 seconds, all of it painful CCP official jargon.
Finally, after he finished, the moderator called on a reporter from The Wall Street Journal. Her question was very long, concerning the U.S. withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, taking 33 seconds to finish. Pompeo dismissed it in just four seconds: “We didn’t discuss that issue in detail today.”
Then it was the turn of a reporter from China Central Television. Her question was: “Could Director Yang please introduce the work China has done for world peace and development, explain how you believe the current China-U.S. trade issues should be resolved, and finally evaluate the future relationship between China and the United States?”
“Director Yang,” just like “Minister Wei,” shamelessly read directly from a prepared script, reading for more than five minutes in total.
And then the 39-minute press conference was over.
Out of boredom, I did something completely pointless: I tallied up the speaking times. The US officials spoke for a total of 8 minutes and 45 seconds, while the Chinese side took 25 minutes and 53 seconds — more than twice as long.
Why did the Americans speak so little? My personal feeling was that they simply thought there was not much to say.
Why did the Chinese side speak so much? China Central Television was recording everything. There were certain things they absolutely had to say “fiercely,” such as how the CCP would “spare no cost” if Taiwan dared declare independence. The reason was that they needed to show these statements to Chinese audiences, demonstrating how tough they supposedly were in the international arena. They needed propaganda for both domestic and foreign consumption.
It had been a long time since I attended such a boring press conference. All the questions I had carefully prepared were completely wasted. It felt less like attending a press conference and more like watching a comic double act performed jointly by CCP officials and Party media.
The question is: when they perform so blatantly, do they not feel ashamed? Perhaps they no longer know what shame even is.
This reminded me of an experience many years earlier in Sydney. At the time, I was working as a reporter for New Tang Dynasty Television in Sydney. A newly arrived cameraman had previously worked as a television cameraman for a provincial TV station in mainland China and was said to be very experienced.
One day, I was taking him to cover a community event. Before leaving, he asked me, “Where’s the script?”
I asked, “What script?”
He seemed confused by me too. “You don’t have a script?”
I said, “No. We write the script after we come back.”
After we talked past each other for quite a while, I finally understood. When he filmed news in mainland China — especially conference news — the script already existed before leaving the office. Every narration line, every quote from every official, what the Party secretary said, what the mayor said, and so on, were all written in advance. When filming, he simply shot the footage according to the script.
Because the mayors and Party secretaries all spoke from prepared scripts, when they reached the lines he needed to film, he just turned on the camera and recorded them. The rest did not need to be filmed at all.
Only then did I realize: Ah? So this is how TV news in mainland China is made?
I also noticed that this cameraman was very skilled at filming B-roll. He could carry the camera steadily on his shoulder and capture many good live-action shots of events.
However, the moment I said we had found someone to interview and asked him to set up the tripod and microphone, he became completely flustered and helpless.
Only then did I realize that in mainland China, he had probably never filmed random people being interviewed. He had only ever filmed officials reading from scripts.
And thinking about it further, that made sense. In mainland China, except under specially arranged circumstances and for specific purposes, how could ordinary citizens casually appear on television to speak? Many mainland Chinese people, even after living overseas for years, still feel uncomfortable or unwilling to speak in front of a TV camera. Sometimes it is extremely difficult to find a Chinese person on the street willing to give an interview.
By contrast, interviewing Westerners is much easier. It seems almost everyone is willing to open their mouth and speak.
Thinking about it this way, mainland China’s so-called “news,” including the events reported in that “news,” is simply a performance acted out according to a pre-written script. It is not an event, not news — it is theater.
Thinking about this made me miss Trump’s press conferences. Even if they were full of verbal warfare, at least who got to ask questions was not prearranged, and nobody read questions or answers from scripts. In the fierce exchanges between questioners and respondents, we could at least see something real.
By comparison, CCP officials look like puppets, mechanically manipulated by invisible strings stretching from Beijing. They do not seem like autonomous human beings at all. It is actually rather pitiful.
11/10/2018
Full press conference video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DARbDY58Xg
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