Eye-rolling reporter vanishes
She rolled her eyes, and then she was gone.
Liang Xiangyi, who raised her eyebrows and turned away from a fellow journalist who was asking a servile question during China’s choreographed National People’s Congress on Wednesday, has not been seen or heard from since.
Her act guaranteed instant national and global attention, and triggered a huge effort by China’s internet censors to suppress the footage, although memes inspired by her eye roll are still circulating.
What might have been seen elsewhere as an expression of frustration at a colleague was viewed by the authorities as a subversive attempt to disrupt the tightly scripted theatre of the parliamentary assembly and China’s rigid political structure.
Liang’s disdain also brought unwelcome scrutiny to the questioner, who identified herself as Zhang Huiqun, executive director of American Multimedia Television USA, an obscure Los Angeles registered media group.
Despite hardly having an audience in the United States, AMTV managed to obtain accreditation for five employees to cover the event. Opportunities for foreign correspondents to pose a questions at the congress are rare, but Zhang was given her chance. Suspicions that she may be a Beijing stooge were further heightened when she referred to China as ‘‘our country’’.
Her question, about China’s ambitious infrastructure projects and its supervision of overseas assets, lasted 47 seconds. It was all too much for Liang, who turned to glare at Zhang before rolling her eyes and jerking her head away.
A letter circulating online and bearing the seal of the congress news office said that the accreditation for both women had been revoked, although it could not be verified.
The live broadcast of Liang’s eye roll provoked a flood of comments by a population long deprived of any meaningful discussion of national politics. Her bosses demanded her immediate return from the Great Hall of People for a full explanation, and she was said to be worried about losing her job because she had sabotaged the ‘‘solemnity’’ of the congress.
Staff at the Beijing office of the state-owned Shanghai Media Group, for which Liang works, insisted that they did not know her. Her mobile phone has been either out of service or busy since Wednesday. A screenshot on the internet purporting to be a text exchange between her and a friend suggests that she is safe, but she has not updated her public social media account since Tuesday.
Liang, who graduated from the Communications University of China in 2004 and is thought to be in her 30s, has a reputation for being straightforward. In response to an online comment about women who are wayward and arrogant, she wrote: ‘‘That’s me.’’
It was likely that the Chinese authorities had decided to ‘‘mothball’’ her, said Willy Lam, a political scientist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, placing her out of sight and out of communication at least until the end of the congress next week.
‘‘I don’t think they could detain her, because she has not committed any offence or advocated anything,’’ said Lam. ‘‘But the party doesn’t like to have this happen. It’s an unnecessary sideshow for something that is supposed to be serious.’’
Liang’s newfound fame could help to protect her from any serious penalty, because further news about her would only stoke public interest, something Beijing did not want, Lam said.
One political commentator from the mainland was less optimistic, however.
‘‘There’s no question she will lose her job,’’ he said on condition of anonymity. ‘‘But they will only do it after the congress is over.’’
The assembly voted to appoint Xi Jinping for his second term as president yesterday, having already agreed in a nearunanimous ballot to repeal presidential term limits. This allows Xi to rule beyond 2023, and potentially for life. It seemed certain that Liang would not be in the hall to witness the vote.