The challenge of covering China tech

Camille Brownley of Columbia Journalism Review interviewed Viola Zhou, a senior reporter who covers China’s tech industry for Rest of World, about the  challenges of covering the beat.

Here is an excerpt:

CB: How would you describe the primary challenges of reporting on the Chinese tech industry now?

VZ: I sometimes joke that Chinese people don’t talk. In the case of an American company’s success, the CEO will be on TV the next day or on social media talking to everyone and collecting millions of followers. But in a Chinese company, this guy actually has to lay low, because attention is bad for a Chinese tech entrepreneur. Especially when it comes to English-language media, people are really nervous that whatever they say will be put into a political framework. I understand that fear; whatever they say becomes part of a US-China story. They are also reluctant to talk because in China, most of the mainstream media is run by the state. If you’re talking to domestic Chinese outlets, what you say won’t end up sounding critical of the authorities. But when you’re talking to international media, you have no control over that framing. A tech entrepreneur who is doing business in China doesn’t want to talk to international media because they can’t control if it’s going to be a positive or a negative story. So there’s a lot of reluctance, fear, and nervousness about talking to the media.

Another challenge is just access. It’s very hard to get a journalism visa in China if you work for a foreign outlet. And Chinese citizens are not usually allowed to work as foreign correspondents based inside China. So there are very few journalists who are able to report on the ground. Most journalists, like me, have to do remote reporting on China by stalking people on the internet or doing phone calls.

Read more here.