Former CNN news anchor Mike Chinoy will screen his recent documentary, Assignment China: Tiananmen Square, next Thursday evening at Taipei’s American Club. The documentary examines news coverage of Tiananmen, which, according to Chinoy, “redefined the relationship between the press, public opinion and foreign policy making, and continues to influence both Chinese politics and international perceptions of China to this day.”
The film is part of a 12-part documentary series, Assignment China, begun in 2008 in association with the University of Southern California’s US-China Institute, where Chinoy is a senior non-resident fellow.
This film series covers more than eight decades of China reporting, beginning with the episode “The Chinese Civil War” on coverage of China in the 1940s, and concluding with “Follow the Money,” about the vast fortunes accumulated by families of Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) and other Chinese political elites, which was brought to light by US reporters in the 2010s. Every major China story to break in the US is covered in between, and all episodes are available on YouTube.
Photo courtesy of Mike Chinoy
Chinoy’s recent book, Assignment China: An Oral History of American Journalists in the People’s Republic, just released in March, came as an outgrowth of the documentary project. (See the book review on p14.)
In the introduction, Chinoy writes that the volume includes “many fascinating comments and stories… left on the cutting room floor” as well as nearly two dozen additional interviews. The book’s historical scope extends beyond that of the film and all the way to 2021, including the COVID-19 pandemic and recent journalist expulsions by China.
Chinoy, who began covering China in 1976 and has spent 24 years as CNN’s top Asia correspondent, is currently based in Taipei.
Following next week’s screening, Chinoy will hold a Q&A and a book signing. To attend, the American Club requests RSVPs by the end of the day tomorrow.
On April 26, The Lancet published a letter from two doctors at Taichung-based China Medical University Hospital (CMUH) warning that “Taiwan’s Health Care System is on the Brink of Collapse.” The authors said that “Years of policy inaction and mismanagement of resources have led to the National Health Insurance system operating under unsustainable conditions.” The pushback was immediate. Errors in the paper were quickly identified and publicized, to discredit the authors (the hospital apologized). CNA reported that CMUH said the letter described Taiwan in 2021 as having 62 nurses per 10,000 people, when the correct number was 78 nurses per 10,000
As we live longer, our risk of cognitive impairment is increasing. How can we delay the onset of symptoms? Do we have to give up every indulgence or can small changes make a difference? We asked neurologists for tips on how to keep our brains healthy for life. TAKE CARE OF YOUR HEALTH “All of the sensible things that apply to bodily health apply to brain health,” says Suzanne O’Sullivan, a consultant in neurology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, and the author of The Age of Diagnosis. “When you’re 20, you can get away with absolute
May 5 to May 11 What started out as friction between Taiwanese students at Taichung First High School and a Japanese head cook escalated dramatically over the first two weeks of May 1927. It began on April 30 when the cook’s wife knew that lotus starch used in that night’s dinner had rat feces in it, but failed to inform staff until the meal was already prepared. The students believed that her silence was intentional, and filed a complaint. The school’s Japanese administrators sided with the cook’s family, dismissing the students as troublemakers and clamping down on their freedoms — with
As Donald Trump’s executive order in March led to the shuttering of Voice of America (VOA) — the global broadcaster whose roots date back to the fight against Nazi propaganda — he quickly attracted support from figures not used to aligning themselves with any US administration. Trump had ordered the US Agency for Global Media, the federal agency that funds VOA and other groups promoting independent journalism overseas, to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” The decision suddenly halted programming in 49 languages to more than 425 million people. In Moscow, Margarita Simonyan, the hardline editor-in-chief of the
RSS