Gerry Shih - Taipei, Taiwan - Washington Post

The podcast tradition of foreign correspondents getting ejected from countries continues. For Gerry Shih, China Correspondent for the Washington Post, there was the added twist of getting kicked out during a global pandemic. On the eve of his reassignment as WaPo’s India bureau chief, Gerry looks back at his time covering China, which he is convinced is now a bigger story than ever.

Countries featured: China, Tajikistan, USA, Mongolia

Publications featured: Associated Press, Reuters, Washington Post, New York Times

Gerry discusses his childhood between California, China and Illinois (6:35), a wakeup call to the realities of journalism on his first day as an NYT intern (14:50), working in the Reuters’ Beijing Bureau alongside Jake (19:45), jumping to AP where he reported some of the biggest stories about Uyghur persecution (25:38), getting kicked out of China with a raft of other American correspondents (33:54), the challenges of reporting on China from the outside (41:37), the importance of digging into big stories and not letting go (49:37), his story finding a secret Chinese military base in Tajikistan (53:40), and the lightning round (1:03:28).

 

Here are links to some of the things we talked about:

Gerry’s story on China using U.S. computer chips to build weapons - https://wapo.st/3sMu5og

His scoop with a first look inside China’s Uyghur indoctrination camps - https://bit.ly/3ep7Uzc

Several of his other key Uyghur stories - https://bit.ly/32NuKuS

His story on a Chinese military outpost in Tajikistan - https://wapo.st/32M7Sfi

Fresh Air on NPR - https://n.pr/3xjc3gK

ESPN’s The Jump podcast - https://es.pn/2QXZ5UN

The Lowe Post NBA podcast - https://es.pn/2QWei8U

NYT story on Mexican woman who stalked her daughter’s killers - https://nyti.ms/3aUnbav

American Factory documentary on Netflix - https://bit.ly/2S2uaHG

Once Upon a Distant War book - https://amzn.to/3aCghq8

 

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Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats

From: freemusicarchive.org

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