A voice for the people
Fu Ying, China’s former viceforeign minister, has published a book recalling her years as the spokeswoman for the National People’s Congress, or NPC, through 2013 to 2017.
In the informative book named Face to Face with You: the Stories behind Press Conferences, Fu reveals the thoughts behind her responses to questions raised by journalists from domestic and foreign media regarding legislation, diplomacy, economics, social issues and national defense, among others.
Equally she details the monthslong preparation for the congress as well as for the news conference that takes place annually on March 4 — the day before the NPC, which, together with the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, forms the “two sessions”.
The book also includes some anecdotes of her attendance at international forums, such as the Munich Security Conferences in Germany and the annual meetings of Russia’s Valdai International Discussion Club.
Fu details how she was frequently asked to explain China’s attitude toward the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue and situations concerning the South China Sea.
Major events during her stay in London as the Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom through 2007 to 2009 are also covered in the book, especially her responses to the March 14 incident in Lhasa, capital of the Tibet autonomous region, and the disruption of the Olympic torch relay in London ahead of the 2008 Beijing Games.
The book is Fu’s first memoir and it took her more than two years to complete.
Fu, 66, served as the Chinese ambassador to the Philippines, Australia and the UK over the 11 years between 1998 and 2009, before taking up the post as vice-foreign minister.
After 35 years’ devotion to international diplomacy, in March 2013, Fu adjusted her focus to domestic legislative issues, as she was announced as the spokeswoman for the NPC, China’s top legislature.
She was the first woman appointed to the role since it was inaugurated in 1983.
Fu says it was a brand-new experience in life and a constant learning process.
She recalls participating in the discussions when the NPC Standing Committee examined the draft law against domestic violence in 2015.
It was via these discussions, and online public opinion, that she recognized the difficulties of clarifying the boundaries between public power and private rights in China, Fu writes in her book.
Fu joined the general preparation for the congress — usually at the end of every year — mainly focusing on media affairs, including looking into public concerns and topics which the media keep a close eye on. That also formed the basis for her arduous preparation for the news conference, which is usually held one day ahead of the opening of the congress.
Those that overlap with the government’s policy priorities for the year are very likely to be mentioned during the news conference.
She was looking for an insight into the current situation, the possible resolutions of existing issues, current policies and related lawmaking and judicial processes, and translated them into words that the public — the audience behind lens — could understand.
Fu attaches great importance to interactions with the public and the media.
She is an active promoter and practitioner of raising China’s voice on both the domestic and international stages, especially in an era when the boundary between both becomes blurred by the development of information technology.
For decades of her diplomatic career, she has worked hard to explain China’s situation, its value system and the Chinese way of thinking to the international community.
At the book release, which was held at Peking University in September, she mentioned a visit to the United States that she made last year, where she found that many of the frequent media reports about China were reported with the absence of Chinese sources.
She was informed, following further discussions with local media insiders, that it’s difficult to get access to Chinese scholars and officials for interviews and verification. So the US media has become accustomed to receiving secondhand information about China, collected from various sources — some reliable and others that may be flawed and biased.
The urgency to improve the lines of communication is also recognized by Wang Guoqing, the threetime spokesman for the CPPCC, the other major organ of the “two sessions”.
Wang, as with Fu, sees the importance of understanding the demands of the international audience in order to raise the efficiency of communication.
He voiced concerns that it is difficult to change the way China is perceived by overseas observers because China’s achievements and propositions are not properly explained.
Meanwhile, the Chinese should embrace interactions with those who have a prejudiced view of China, rather than avoiding them, according to Wang’s words at the book release.
He thinks Fu’s delivery and techniques are worth studying so as to remove such barriers.
In the view of Liu Binjie, director of the School of Journalism and Communication at Tsinghua University, every Chinese person is a representative of the nation’s image, whose sincerity and behavior when interacting with people from various countries and regions accounts for their impressions of China.
Fu’s book can be seen as a manual in this field — how to make China’s voices heard, understood and, in the end, accepted, as well as how to generate mutual respect, according to Qiao Weibing, editor-in-chief of China Citic Press, the publisher of the book.
Yuan Ming, dean of Peking University’s Yenching Academy and a friend of Fu for more than half a century, recalls a visit to Fu’s office when she was serving as vice-foreign minister.
“Her desk was piled with documents and books and in the corner was a cot,” Yuan says.
That sincerity and devotion for her work is indicated throughout the book.