Mike Chinoy, "Assignment: China – As the Doors Opened (1970s)"

The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University presents screenings of two documentary films on the history of American correspondents in China, followed by discussion with producer Mike Chinoy.

Assignment: China–As the Doors Opened (1970s)
Screening of two documentary films will be followed by discussion with producer Mike Chinoy

Assignment China is a multi-part documentary film series on the history of American correspondents in China being produced by the U.S.-China Institute at the University of Southern California. The lead reporter is Mike Chinoy, a senior fellow at the Institute and former CNN Beijing bureau chief and senior Asia correspondent. Former U.S. ambassador to China Winston Lord described the series as an “essential and invaluable” resource for understanding the role the U.S. media has played in shaping American and international perceptions of the country.

5:00 pm End of an Era

The early and mid-1970s were a time of intense political drama in China. As the health of Chairman Mao Zedong deteriorated, the struggle between the radical "Gang of Four" led by Mao's wife Jiang Qing, and pragmatists like Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, was reaching a climax. For American correspondents, it was a huge­–and hugely challenging–story. 

Following President Nixon's visit in 1972, China began to permit somewhat greater, but still strictly controlled, access by U.S. reporters. In 1973, the three American TV networks–CBS, ABC, and NBC–were each allowed to send crews for extended periods to do documentaries. Correspondents were also able to accompany Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and President Ford on trips to Beijing. But for the most part, China remained off-limits to American reporters.

As the People's Republic faced an intensified power struggle and a dramatic and dangerous leadership transition, the task of covering developments fell largely to a colorful group of "China-Watchers" in Hong Kong. Peering in from the outside, they struggled to keep up with the rapidly changing, and often mystifying, developments that would shape the future of China.

End of an Era is their story and features interviews with journalists who covered China during those years, including such well-known correspondents as Robert Elegant of the Los Angeles Times, Joseph Lelyveld and Fox Butterfield of the New York Times, Orville Schell of the New Yorker, Steve Bell and Ted Koppel of ABC News, Henry Bradsher of the Washington Star, Tom Brokaw of NBC News, and others. It also includes interviews with diplomats who handled Chinese affairs and contains rare archival footage of Hong Kong and China from that time.

6:30 pm  dinner break – see dinner option below

7:30 pm Opening Up

In 1979, United States and China had just established diplomatic relations. In the wake of Deng Xiaoping’s historic trip to the United States to mark the occasion, the Chinese government, for the first time since the communist revolution in 1949, allowed American journalists to be based in Beijing. A pioneering generation of reporters arrived to open bureaus just as China began to embark on the dramatic reforms that would transform the country and its relations with the rest of the world. Cautious experimentation with private enterprise and foreign investment began, and restrictions on personal freedom eased, even as the government implemented its draconian one-child family planning policy. There were also stirrings of dissent, which the Communist Party moved to stifle.

As the first resident US correspondents in Beijing in 30 years, the small American press corps struggled to break through the barriers of politics, language, and culture, while confronting the technological challenges of operating in a developing country long cut off from the West, seeking to convey to American audiences a sense of China at a moment of dramatic change.

Opening Up is based on extensive interviews with virtually all the reporters who opened the first U.S. news bureaus in the Peoples Republic, including Jay Mathews of the Washington Post, Richard Bernstein of Time Magazine, Fox Butterfield of the New York Times, Frank Ching of the Wall St. Journal, Melinda Liu of Newsweek, John Roderick of the Associated Press, Jim Laurie of ABC, Bruce Dunning of CBS, Sandy Gilmour of NBC, and many others. This documentary also contains interviews with Chinese officials who sought to manage the western media, with some of the people the reporters covered, as well rare archival footage, still photos, and previously unseen home videos.

Mike Chinoy is a senior fellow at the US-China Institute at the University of Southern California and the creator of the Assignment China documentary film series. Chinoy spent 24 years as a foreign correspondent for CNN, including eight years as the network’s first bureau chief in Beijing. He began his career working for CBS News and NBC News in Hong Kong in the 1970s. Chinoy has received numerous awards for his journalism, including the Emmy, Peabody, and Dupont awards for his coverage of the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident and a Dupont award for his coverage of the tsunami. He holds a BA from Yale University and an MS from Columbia University.
Dinner Option
We welcome participants who wish to attend both sessions of the New England China Seminar to join colleagues for a buffet dinner at 6:30-7:30 pm, in Room S153. The dinner cost is $15 per person ($10 for students). Due to space limitations, we will accept 30 reservations on a first come first serve basis. Advance reservation and payment is required. Please register before noon on Friday, October 11, 2013, by clicking here.