U.S. financial media outlet Bloomberg has confirmed that Haze Fan, a Chinese employee in its Beijing office, has been detained by officials on suspicion of endangering “national security. After China’s mass expulsion of dozens of foreign journalists from China this year, it is now targeting Chinese assistants working for foreign media. Some analysts believe that China’s official aim is to “make an example of the monkey” and that the situation of foreign media in China is like an abyss and could get even darker.
“It’s almost like a kidnapping, almost like a kidnapping.” That’s how John Pomfret, the former Beijing bureau chief of the Washington Post, described Fan’s ordeal.
Fan lost contact with Bloomberg just after noon Monday in Beijing. A Bloomberg spokesman confirmed on Monday that she had been removed from her residence by plainclothes security officers on suspicion of endangering national security, and that Bloomberg was concerned about her situation and was actively communicating with Chinese authorities to learn more about her.
As Associated Press correspondent in China in 1989, Ban was deemed by Chinese officials to be “illegally covering and distorting reports” on the Tiananmen Square incident and was given a 72-hour time limit to leave the country. He returned to China in 1998 as the Beijing bureau chief of the Washington Post, and although he was also expelled by Chinese officials, he experienced a golden era when Chinese officials dared to open up to foreign journalists. However, the brief good times foreign media had in China are “gone” and the darkest hour is yet to come.
“(The situation) may continue to go down, it is particularly tense now, but mainly for Chinese citizens to do things for foreign journalists, the pressure is particularly strong, this is a very obvious signal, this is to kill the chicken for the monkey to see.” Pan Wen told the station.
Arrested and imprisoned, those who have fallen before and after the foreign media Chinese assistants
The chilling effect has been happening for a long time. From the expulsion of foreign journalists to the arrest of Fan Ruo Yi, no one in the foreign media journalists’ WeChat circle of friends openly discussed the matter, of course, for the reason of “you know, I know”.
“Our situation has never been better, and now it’s worse, alas!” S., who sighs heavily, is still working as an assistant for a European media outlet. For the past ten years, she had been taken away for an interview because she had “violated” the rules by accompanying her foreign colleague to a live interview.
S was not allowed to be interviewed by name for security reasons and without authorization from the media she works for. In China, people like S are passionate about journalism, fluent in Chinese and English, and some even speak three or four foreign languages, but they can only ever be “Chinese assistants” to the outside world, even if S sometimes does the reporting all by herself. After the article is published, the aura and influence will always belong to her “boss”, the foreign journalist.
Beijing has a rule that citizens cannot work as reporters for foreign news organizations in China; they can only work as translators or assistants for foreign media. Some foreign news agencies will give their contributions to the Chinese media the applause they deserve and will include their names in their reports.
Even though the laurels are not on them, S. still insists on fighting for the freedom to write and learn, even though she has watched many excellent Chinese assistants move to foreign companies with better incomes and secure jobs, and some become senior editors or reporters in domestic new media, “the official press card is issued to you, but you have to walk on your knees with shackles on. .” S said.
There is a precedent for foreign media midwives being jailed. Zhao Yan, a former New York Times assistant, was arrested in 2004 on charges of leaking state secrets. The New York Times was the first to report the case 10 days before former leader Jiang Zemin resigned as chairman of the Central Military Commission, and although he was later acquitted of the charge of “leaking state secrets,” which carries a maximum penalty of death, he was sentenced to three years in prison for fraud and was not released until 2007.
Excellent Foreign Media Chinese Assistants Under Pressure
The Chinese assistants are the unnamed driving force behind a great story about China in the foreign media. Pan Wen said that his two Chinese assistants in Beijing back then were particularly good people, “They were particularly helpful to us, and we couldn’t have done it without them. But now, there are still some journalistic ideals of the Chinese people where the road ahead? Pan Wen is helpless, “It is too difficult to answer, the pressure is too great in all aspects now.”
Since the outbreak began this year, Chinese officials first canceled the visas of several media outlets in China, including the Wall Street Journal. Similar to the Wall Street Journal’s situation, many foreign media outlets have Chinese assistants who are an important pillar of their newsroom, but now China is turning the tables on these Chinese-speaking assistants.
James Palmer, deputy editor-in-chief of the U.S.-based Foreign Policy magazine, told the station, “Since Xi Jinping came to power, interviewees are more reluctant to be interviewed publicly, interviewers and interviewees are at higher risk, and the situation has gotten worse for Chinese employees working for foreign media.”
According to Fan Ruoi’s public profile on LinkedIn, she was employed by CNBC, CBS (CBC), Al Jazeera, and Reuters in the U.K. before her stint at Bloomberg in 2017.
Van Rooij’s detention follows the arrest of Australian national Cheng Lei, a host of an English-language financial program on China’s official television network, CGTN, on suspicion of endangering national security.
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club in China (FCCC) tweeted a statement saying it was concerned about Fan’s arrest and was seeking information from China about the incident.
Cedric Alviani, executive director of the East Asia office of Reporters Without Borders, an international press freedom organization, told the station that, according to RSF, China has arrested at least 180 journalists, including Fan Ruoy, and that RSF is calling on Chinese officials to release all journalists, including Fan Ruoy, as soon as possible.
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