The podcast tradition of foreign correspondents getting ejected from countries continues. For Gerry Shih, China Correspondent for the Washington Post, there was the added twist of getting kicked out during a global pandemic. On the eve of his reassignment as WaPo’s India bureau chief, Gerry looks back at his time covering China, which he is convinced is now a bigger story than ever.
Countries featured: China, Tajikistan, USA, Mongolia
Publications featured: Associated Press, Reuters, Washington Post, New York Times
Gerry discusses his childhood between California, China and Illinois (6:35), a wakeup call to the realities of journalism on his first day as an NYT intern (14:50), working in the Reuters’ Beijing Bureau alongside Jake (19:45), jumping to AP where he reported some of the biggest stories about Uyghur persecution (25:38), getting kicked out of China with a raft of other American correspondents (33:54), the challenges of reporting on China from the outside (41:37), the importance of digging into big stories and not letting go (49:37), his story finding a secret Chinese military base in Tajikistan (53:40), and the lightning round (1:03:28).
Here are links to some of the things we talked about:
Gerry’s story on China using U.S. computer chips to build weapons - https://wapo.st/3sMu5og
His scoop with a first look inside China’s Uyghur indoctrination camps - https://bit.ly/3ep7Uzc
Several of his other key Uyghur stories - https://bit.ly/32NuKuS
His story on a Chinese military outpost in Tajikistan - https://wapo.st/32M7Sfi
Fresh Air on NPR - https://n.pr/3xjc3gK
ESPN’s The Jump podcast - https://es.pn/2QXZ5UN
The Lowe Post NBA podcast - https://es.pn/2QWei8U
NYT story on Mexican woman who stalked her daughter’s killers - https://nyti.ms/3aUnbav
American Factory documentary on Netflix - https://bit.ly/2S2uaHG
Once Upon a Distant War book - https://amzn.to/3aCghq8
Follow us on Twitter @foreignpod or on Facebook at facebook.com/foreignpod
Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats
From: freemusicarchive.org
CC BY NC
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