A little Ling Ling Qi story

[Randy W]

A little bit of 〇〇七 (007)-style intrigue, with an unfortunate choice of headlines, and perhaps a little too lengthy and involved, for those of us with shorter attention spans.

 

But an interesting story with some insight into Chinese politics

 

That time I split my pants open at the Great Hall of the People

 

In 2015, I was chased around a Tianjin railway station by four goons and ended up at the National People's Congress asking Premier Li Keqiang about a censored film about the environment.

 

 

Ms. Liu gestured toward the tall man with a smile.

“This man is from the Village Party Committee,” she said. “He will talk to you.”

The man hesitated for a minute, then spoke up in a quiet voice.

“This is a problem within the village and we’ll resolve it within the village. It has nothing to do with you and you’re not welcome here.”

I opened up my notebook and began to scribble, but the moment my pen touched the paper, the barrel-chested man exploded.

“Who are you?! Where are you from? What the hell is he writing in that notebook?!?”

I shut the notebook and threw up my hands.

. . .

 

What Chai Jing did in Under the Dome was spin a damning narrative about these industries, and tie it up with a bow. The film explained why Chinese people’s lungs and pocketbooks were suffering, and it directed all of the outrage at Xi’s rivals. Xi couldn’t have done it better if he had directed the film himself.

The sudden censoring of Under the Dome wasn’t about what the film said, but who got to say it. Chai was the perfect messenger to get the story out, but Xi’s cohort wanted to make sure she didn’t turn her fame into an independent source of power.

I’d been tracing these strands at the grassroots for the past six months, visiting run-down coal villages and steel towns, victims of both economic restructuring and environmental crackdowns. Those towns stuck with me, and they struck me as core to figuring out where China was going.

So, facing my computer screen on that Friday afternoon, I wrote out my third question:

In Chai Jing’s recent documentary Under the Dome, she argues that PetroChina and Sinopec are obstructing the setting and enforcement of environmental standards, especially in terms of gasoline standards and natural gas. Do you believe these companies are obstructing environmental enforcement, and if so, what will the central government do to break through that obstruction?

. . .

 

After I snapped shut my laptop, my phone buzzed. It was a message from my contact in the village. He had been held at the police station all day, but he was out now. He said he was doing all right. We promised to stay in touch. I went to the kitchen, cracked a Yanjing, and took a deep gulp of warm beer.

A surprising phone call

By Wednesday, I had forgotten all about the questions I’d sent to Beth. But that afternoon, my WeChat buzzed with a message.

“Thank you for your questions, Mr. Matthew. You are invited to ask the third question during Premier Li’s press conference. Come to the NPC media center by Saturday to get your credentials.”