'Every place you go, you are being watched': reporting from Xi's China“You don’t work out, do you?” inquired one of the officers who had summoned me to my hotel lobby in China’s pre-eminent police state. Without the express permission of local authorities, reporting was strictly forbidden in these troubled parts, Mike informed me. It was unpleasant,” I wrote, explaining how we had eventually been freed after I called China’s foreign ministry and asked them to intervene. A copy of one of Xi’s now numerous books, The Governance of China, occupied pride of place on Ding’s desk. Ding’s dislike of the Guardian’s coverage of Xi’s China has, I sense, been shared by Chinese authorities who have complained repeatedly of the “bad atmosphere” my stories have created.

Source: The Guardian March 10, 2018 12:07 UTC