August 28, 2014, 6:00 am
The Three Gorges Dam in China. Photo: Shutterstock
A self-confessed “accidental” reporter, Dai Qing has been making waves in Chinese media and society for more than three decades with fearless story-telling and outspoken opinions.
Her work opposing the Three Gorges Dam project in the 1980s and 90s (including the publication of her books Yangtze! Yangtze! and River Dragon Has Come) earned her international recognition, and her activism during this period also saw her imprisoned by Chinese authorities. While the tools have changed significantly over the decades, Dai Qing’s insights on investigative reporting from inside China, and the importance of press freedom, are as valuable as ever.
1.This year marks the 25th anniversary of your book Yangtze! Yangtze! on the controversial Three Gorges Dam project. How much has changed in China in these past 25 years when it comes to environmental awareness? Are investigative journalists holding officials and corporations accountable?
In the past 25 years, the environmental awareness of Chinese people has changed dramatically, especially among the educated who know how to use a VPN to cross the Great Firewall. There has also been great change for the residents whose living conditions and even lives have been threatened due to the deterioration of environment.
More and more investigative journalists make inquiries to officials who should be held accountable for the environmental destruction. However, officials have also improved their ability to evade these questions, by doing things such as seeking shelter from higher officials.
In terms of making inquiries and ensuring accountability on environmental issues, I’d like to give two examples: Transition Institute, a Beijing-based institute researching on China’s economic and social development, raised the question about how much money the government had spent on the Three Gorges Dam Project; and experts, journalists and environmentalists all fought against building dams on Nu River, also known as Salween River, in Southwest China.
25年来，民众，特别是受过教育、能够上网翻墙阅读的人，环境意识已经发生巨大改变——不用说自身的生活质量与生命安危，已经因为环境破坏而受到影响的居民。
调查记者对责任官员的追问，越来越多地出现在一个又一个案例中。与此同时，官员的搪塞技巧，包括寻求高层保护的通道，也在与日具进。比如传知行对“三峡工程究竟花了多少钱”的追问；比如对“怒江筑坝”的抗争。
Journalist and author Dai Qing
.2.The book received a lot of praise but in your view what was its most significant impact over the years?
Its most significant impact over the years is that the book tells the outside world that in a country under the iron curtain like China, there is still a group of independent scholars and journalists who have tried their best to voice opinions on the central government’s decision. They never win, but they keep on fighting.
在中国这样的铁幕国家，居然出现独立精神的学者和记者，并且就最高决策有限地发出了声音——虽然他们屡战屡败、屡败屡战。
3. What is the path that led you to investigative journalism in the first place?
I got into investigative journalism accidentally. When China began reforming and opening up, I was an engineering technician, and I wrote a short fiction about how the government treated its whole-hearted civilians cruelly, hoping to tell people true depressing stories that happened in my surroundings. The piece brought me fame and I was invited to work for a national newspaper for intellectuals – Guangming Daily.
