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Versions of China
The Shanghai confab was full of wry moments
By ADI IGNATIUS
October 4, 1999
Web posted at 8 a.m. Hong Kong time, 8 p.m. EDT
Last week's Fortune Global Forum in Shanghai was nothing if not ironic. The intended theme was clear: China is open, now more than ever, to the outside world. But China is still China, and thus any attempt to embrace scores of visiting CEOs was sure to experience a hiccup or two.
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Like on the first day. Spoiled as they may be in real life, the visiting Western business moguls (plus a few journalists like myself) had to travel from their hotels to the local Customs Building to pick up their credentials. But when we all arrived, a row of police stood blocking the way. "You can't pass without credentials," an officer barked at me. "Yes, but they're inside the building you're standing in front of," I explained. I laughed at the amusing situation. He didn't. Nor did he budge.
This went on for some time. A couple dozen of us stood around wondering if we'd ever get our passes. Finally a uniformed senior officer approached. He snapped his men to attention and shouted: "Let the foreign guests go to the Customs Building!" The line melted away at once; we got our badges.
The bigger controversy, and irony, was China's decision to ban TIME Asia's special report on the country's 50th anniversary. It wasn't unprecedented; Beijing outlaws roughly two or three issues each year. And this issue included several writers--Wang Dan, Wei Jingsheng, the Dalai Lama--who didn't exactly make it onto China's invite list for the forum.
Nonetheless, it was unfortunate, for China in particular, that the magazine's distribution was blocked amid the nation's great open-house. Although Beijing allowed subscribers to receive their copies, it prohibited newsstand sales.
That said, the restriction set up the moment in the week that gave me ultimate confidence in China's future. Mid-way through the conference, a little kiosk in the exhibition hall suddenly began selling copies of the banned TIME. Closer inspection revealed them to be "subscriber" copies, well-thumbed before making their way to the small shop. You didn't want to ask where the magazines had come from. You just wanted to smile. For the kiosk operators. And for China.
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