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About this book
A thrilling and provocative account of unfolding tensions between China and the West, filled with the people, stories and sticky situations from Bill Birtles' five years as Australian Broadcasting Company correspondent.
'People abroad always thought things were much scarier in China than they really were. What threw me, though, was the urgency of the diplomats in Beijing. They live it, they get it. And they wanted me out.'
Bill Birtles was rushed out of China in September 2020, forced to seek refuge in the Australian Embassy in Beijing while diplomats delicately negotiated his departure in an unprecedented standoff with China's government. Five days later he was on a flight back to Sydney, leaving China without any Australian foreign correspondents on the ground for the first time in decades.
A journalist's perspective on this rising global power has never been more important, as Australia's relationship with China undergoes an extraordinary change that's seen the detention of a journalist Cheng Lei, Canberra's criticism of Beijing's efforts to crush Hong Kong's freedoms, as well as China's military activity in the South China Sea and its human rights violations targeting the mostly Muslim Uighur minority in Xinjiang province. Chronicling his five-year stint in China as he criss-crossed the country, Birtles reveals why the historic unraveling of China's relations with the West is perceived very differently inside the country.
The Truth About China is a compelling and candid examination of China, one that takes a magnifying glass to recent events, and looks through a telescope at what is yet to come.
'People abroad always thought things were much scarier in China than they really were. What threw me, though, was the urgency of the diplomats in Beijing. They live it, they get it. And they wanted me out.'
Bill Birtles was rushed out of China in September 2020, forced to seek refuge in the Australian Embassy in Beijing while diplomats delicately negotiated his departure in an unprecedented standoff with China's government. Five days later he was on a flight back to Sydney, leaving China without any Australian foreign correspondents on the ground for the first time in decades.
A journalist's perspective on this rising global power has never been more important, as Australia's relationship with China undergoes an extraordinary change that's seen the detention of a journalist Cheng Lei, Canberra's criticism of Beijing's efforts to crush Hong Kong's freedoms, as well as China's military activity in the South China Sea and its human rights violations targeting the mostly Muslim Uighur minority in Xinjiang province. Chronicling his five-year stint in China as he criss-crossed the country, Birtles reveals why the historic unraveling of China's relations with the West is perceived very differently inside the country.
The Truth About China is a compelling and candid examination of China, one that takes a magnifying glass to recent events, and looks through a telescope at what is yet to come.
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Yes, you can access The Truth About China by Bill Birtles in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Business & Media & Communications Industry. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- COVER PAGE
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- TITLE PAGE
- COPYRIGHT PAGE
- DEDICATION
- CONTENTS
- 1 AN UNEXPECTED PHONE CALL
- 2 A RUSHED FAREWELL
- 3 A MIDNIGHT KNOCK
- 4 HOTEL AUSTRALIA
- 5 THE GOOD OLD DAYS
- 6 āCANTONESE CULTUREā
- 7 BEIJING
- 8 THE āREALā CHINA
- 9 RULE OF LAW
- 10 TRADE WAR
- 11 HONG KONG
- 12 TINDERBOX
- 13 DEADLOCK
- 14 BLACKOUT
- 15 PATRIOTISM
- 16 THE SIEGE OF POLY U
- 17 CORONAVIRUS
- 18 PANDEMIC
- 19 AN INDEPENDENT INQUIRY
- 20 HIGH SUMMER
- PICTURE SECTION
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS