'Focus' (Jiaodian Fangtan) and the Changes in the Chinese ...

LI XIAOPING
Case Three: On 7 December 1997, ‘Focus’ reported that farmers in Wu Da Lian
Chi, Heil Longjiang province had sold their grain to a local government grain store.
However, for several months, they could not get cash for the sales, only an IOU.
What had happened was that the managers of a government silo had diverted the
money to construct a factory to bottle spring water. The local grain farmers were
very angry, and the TV program provided lively coverage of the farmers’ complaints
and demands. Afterwards, the Heilongjiang government sent a crew to Wu
Da Lian Chi, probed the situation, punished the people involved , and returned the
farmers’ money within a few days. The farmers were thrilled. People in the
surrounding countryside reported that farmers started to warn the local bureaucrats:
If you don’t do the right thing, we will see you on ‘Focus’.
The Hei Longjiang government uncovered and sorted out a number of similar cases
to good effect.
The cases show that the public began to see the media as a channel to voice their
views and demands and in� uence policies. On the other hand, some bureaucrats
became very nervous about ‘Focus’ and tried to stop it from producing such
programs. There is a saying among some bureaucrats, ‘Avoid � res, avoid theft,
avoid “Focus” ’.
There has been a story that there were two lines of people queuing up at the
reception area of CCTV. One line was amassed with people asking the ‘Focus’
team to send its TV crew to cover stories about bad things like pollution and
corruption in their home town or village. Another line was full of people from
places where ‘Focus’ had revealed their bad behaviour. They arrived at CCTV to
admit to certain wrongdoings and promise not to do it again. Some of them said
they would prefer to pay compensation to their victims rather than have their stories
told on ‘Focus’. That might be exaggerated, but it does suggest the in� uence of the
program. Furthermore, the program has received hundreds of letters, emails and
telephone calls from the audience every day with leaks for stories which the
‘Focus’ program might want to investigate.
Shaping policies
The ‘Focus’ phenomenon has not only kept the government and the public
informed of various problems but has sometimes set the government agenda for
policymaking and reform.
In May 2000 when President Jiang Zemin came back from his trip to the Middle
East, a videotape copy of a ‘Focus’ program broadcast two days earlier was put in
his of� ce. It was entitled ‘How far away is the desert from Beijing?’ and explored
the background reasons why some areas around Beijing were turning into desert.
Premier Zhu Rongji had asked for a copy of it for Jiang after watching the
program himself. Sandstorms had hit Beijing several times before that. A few days
later, the central government convened several meetings to discuss the problem and
ways to avoid further the encroachment of the desert towards Beijing. They decided
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