| Home | Interview with Phil Pan, Washington Post -- May 2004
November 7, 2009

Philip Pan, 33, is Beijing bureau chief for The Washington Post, a post he has held since December 2003. Pan joined The Post's Beijing bureau in Sept. 2001, working as a correspondent. He received the 2002 Livingston Award for International Reporting for a series of stories about labor conditions in China. Before China, Pan worked on The Post's Metro Desk, covering crime, education and immigration policy. Pan graduated from Harvard University in 1995 with a degree in government, and landed his first job with The Washington Post. He was managing editor of his college paper 'The Harvard Crimson.' During college, he freelanced for the Boston Globe, and interned with the Los Angeles Times, Atlanta Journal Constitution, and the Jersey Journal. He spoke with JournalismJobs.com about working in China.

Phil Pan
JournalismJobs.com: How is it to work as a journalist in China? What sort of restrictions do you face?

Phil Pan: I think China is one of the most rewarding and challenging places in the world to work as a journalist. Rewarding because it is the scene of a remarkable story, the world's largest and perhaps most successful experiment in authoritarianism. The ruling Communist Party is challenging the Western notion that economic development must bring political liberalization. It is fighting to hold on to power while managing a painful transition from socialism to capitalism and delivering the fastest growth rates in the world, lifting millions out of poverty. It's a challenging place to work because the place is so big, the language is so difficult to master, the issues are so complex and the government and often the people are so closed and afraid of journalists.

Under Chinese law, foreign correspondents still need permission to conduct any interviews. I have been detained a few times while trying to see people, and the government's security services have sometimes prevented people from seeing me. But there are no restrictions on what I can write.

JournalismJobs.com: Have you ever been threatened by the Chinese government? How has this affected your reporting?

Phil Pan: I have never been threatened by the government. In fact, the government sometimes can be quite helpful.

JournalismJobs.com: What's surprised you most about being a reporter there?

Phil Pan: I suppose the most surprising thing about being a reporter in China is how quickly the place is changing and how ordinary people are constantly pushing and redefining the limits of what they can get away with saying and doing. The party's response is always hard to predict.

JournalismJobs.com: Is it hard to get Chinese citizens to open up to you because you're an American journalist and they're worried about repercussions from their own government?

Phil Pan: It can be quite difficult, given both the government's attitude and a deeply entrenched cultural tradition against airing dirty laundry in front of foreigners. But I find that people are increasingly eager to talk, especially those with grievances against the government who have found the state media and the party-run courts unwilling to help.

JournalismJobs.com: You've written a number of stories about labor conditions, including an article about how Chinese workers are dying from causes related to overwork. How did the Chinese react to your pieces?

Phil Pan: The government never said anything to me directly about any of my pieces on labor conditions in China. Perhaps they recognize they have a problem.

JournalismJobs.com: Was the SARS story overblown?

Phil Pan: It's hard for me to judge whether it was overblown in the U.S., but it was certainly a major story in China because it represented not only a medical emergency but also a political crisis for the Communist Party.

JournalismJobs.com: There never seems to be a shortage of hard news coming out of China. How much time can you devote to enterprise stories?

Phil Pan: I spend at least two thirds of my time on enterprise stories. Probably more.

JournalismJobs.com: At 33, you're already Beijing bureau chief for one of the top newspapers in the world. What's next?

Phil Pan: I'm planning to stay in China for another year and half or so, and thinking about a possible book. Then, on to another country.


Copyright © 2004 JournalismJobs.com. All rights reserved.


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