On October 25, the New York Times published the article Billions in Hidden Riches for Family of Chinese Leader by their Shanghai-based reporter David Barboza. You would think that the non-state overseas Chinese-language media would pick up on this huge scandal. According to past practice, they will even magnify the case with unsubstantiated rumors. But no, the non-state overseas Chinese-lanuage media are also uniform in expressing skepticism about the New York Times report. This is really unthinkable that the Chinese state media and the overseas non-state Chinese-language media would converge on a major issue such as this one.
So this is where we are -- It is the New York Times on one side, and an alliance of strange bedfellows of Chinese state media and overseas Chinese dissident media on the other side. Since the New York Times so infallible? For a reprise, please see the work by the same David Barboza at The Lanxiang Vocational School Hacked Google.
Now, David Barboza Answers Reader Questions on Reporting in China:
Q. What was your rationale for the timing of this article? Have you ever got a feeling of being used?
Q. Please enlighten me and other readers how you can justify your strong allegations first and then hinting you may not be sure of the allegations.
Q. I have a strange feeling that New York Times has become a tool in a factional struggle between different factions of Communist party.
Q. It is interesting that a few days ago, several Chinese sites reported that a thick bundle of material about Wen’s family wealth was sent to major US news agent by unidentified parties. The speculation was that this was the revenge for people who are sympathetic to Bo Xilai. Could Times tell us why it decided to do this now to Wen even though rumor about it had been going for years. Has the intentional leak played any role in the timing?
Q. May I ask you how you can get into such detailed level of information? Did you get any leads from someone inside the Wall?
Judge for yourself.
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