Chinese Journo Who Walked Dandi March Among Those Asked to Leave

EXCLUSIVE: Meet Chinese journalists, who were passionate about India, and have been asked to leave by the government

On 1 July, I woke up to a Facebook notification that read – “Ummm.. enjoying Mumbai monsoon” with a picture of cutting chai and pakoda. It was from Tang Lu, a 40-something Chinese journalist based in Mumbai. She was happy that the tulsi plant she was gifted in Nagpur last month was alive to witness the first rain!

Tang Lu, or Laxmi as she loves to call herself, was fascinated by India from her college days. That’s when she left Peking University in Beijing to study at JNU in New Delhi. Then, she became a visiting scholar at Sardar Patel University in Gujarat, where she studied Indian politics and society. And as fate would have it, she returned to India a couple of years ago, as the Mumbai bureau chief of Chinese news agency Xinhua (pronounced as Shin-hua).

I met her last year at the coverage of an Indo-Chinese event in Tibet. The first thing I noticed about her, were her curious eyes. She was always eager to know about Indian customs and society. It was probably the first time I was talking to a Chinese national. Isn’t it sad that in the 31 years of my existence, I had never met a single person from my neighbouring country?

Having read horrible things about China and its aggressive government in books and newspapers, I had formed an impression in my mind — that all Chinese people are suspicious and untrustworthy.

However, Tang Lu and her colleague in Mumbai bureau, She Yonggang (pronounced as sha-yon-kan) were warm and nice. His Indian name is Sudama. Several Chinese citizens assume simple English names after they come here, for their original Chinese names can be difficult to pronounce and remember. But Tang Lu and She decided to accept Indian names.

It was while talking to her that I realised how she not only loved India, but had in-depth knowledge about our people, our lives, our problems and how we’re dealing with them. One of her recently published articles is indicative of how she views India:

“Many Chinese often judge a book by its cover, and the dirty, poor and backward aspects of India are exposed on the surface. Without in-depth interactions with Indians and careful observation, the Indian image that stays in a person’s memory may be only that of poverty and backwardness. There are many Indian slums scattered in the most prosperous areas of large cities. There are fewer skyscrapers and international shopping centres than in China, and more beggars and poverty-stricken people, narrower roads, and an overwhelmingly chaotic and polluted urban environment,” she wrote.

However, beneath the surface India is a young and vibrant country. Beneath the surface, we see the heartfelt pride and self-confidence for their motherland through interaction with Indians.

Tang Lu

For a book, Media at Work in India and China, she wrote an interesting anecdote about how she had to argue with her editors in Beijing about the coverage of 26/11 Mumbai attacks:

“…In this context, my editor assigned me to write a report about how the terrorist attack in Mumbai destroyed that Indian dream of world power status. However, according to my observation of India over the past 20 years, similar terrorist attacks have confronted India, but India still kept developing. I could not draw the conclusion that the terrorist attack in Mumbai destroyed India’s dream of world-power status. Just as a world power cannot be created through one or two incidents, it cannot be destroyed by a single terrorist attack. The pace at which India moved towards becoming a world power would not be slowed down by terrorist attacks. At last my editorial department agreed that I could contribute according to my own train of thought. It seems that my report, ‘The Terrorist Attack in Mumbai Can’t Destroy India’s Dream of World Power,’ turned out to be the most original voice among all the reports of Chinese media about the incident in Mumbai.”

One should listen to Tang Lu when talks about her experience of Dandi march, which she walked in 2005! She is passionate about anything Indian, but never misses the dark side of it. While she knows the noble cause behind Gandhi’s march, she doesn’t fail to mention the politics of Congress in Gujarat behind organising the march. That’s Tang Lu. Passionate, yet dispassionate.

She is fascinated the most by three desi things — Punjabi food, Shah Rukh Khan films and Ganesh festival! Last year, I took her and She Yonggang to the immersion processions at Girgaum Chaupatty. They were shocked to see thousands of people thronging the streets, because in China, people are not allowed to gather in such huge numbers.

It was while watching the elephant god I realised that She Yonggang (Sudama), who is in his mid-20s had keen interest in spiritualism. Since most Chinese are not religious, Sudama found it interesting that Indians are born devotees!

He has great knowledge about both Buddhism and Hinduism, but largely follows the teachings of Confucius. I was amazed to know he knew characters in Ramayana and Mahabharata!

Now if you ask me my opinion about the grave charges that have been levied against them unofficially by the Indian government, my answer is simple – I don’t know. I know both of them are good human beings, good friends, good journalists, but frankly, I don’t know much beyond that. All I can do is hope that they haven’t crossed their journalistic brief. I asked them to clarify, but they are not allowed to come on record. Even the consulate is mum about it.

Then I turned to Suddhendra Kulkarni of Observers Research Foundation. He’s been working on improving Indo-Chinese relations and personally knows both the Chinese journalists based in Mumbai.

If there is any act of indiscretion on the part of journalists, these should have been brought to the concern of the journalists and the agency in order to convey the concerns of Indian government. By doing so, this issue could have been resolved without bringing it to public domain. Since the issue has come into public domain, it has given rise to speculation and counter-speculation. At this stage, two governments should find a proper solution in a mature, diplomatic way.

Suddhendra Kulkarni, Chairman, ORF Mumbai

Tang Lu is known to everyone as a ‘friend of India’. I think her balanced writing, in its own way, has helped Chinese readers understand India better.

I remember in 2014, my friend Snehash Alex Philip, who works for PTI, was asked to leave Islamabad along with Meena Menon of The Hindu. Since then, we don’t have a single Indian reporter in Pakistan!

Forget the government, we Indian citizens have lost our eyes and ears in the land where we need them. We have no choice but to completely rely on the coverage of Pakistani or Western media. Now that we have asked three Chinese journalists to move out of India, China can reciprocate and do the same to Indian journalists there!

I am not blaming the Indian government alone; I think change should start with China. The one-party state needs to clearly separate the foreign correspondents of Chinese media houses from their embassies and consulates.

If not done, it creates suspicion in the mind of the host country. India, on its part, should stop leaking information unofficially and come on record. If India thinks the Chinese journalists are spies, the issue should be raised at the right level. Otherwise, it can easily be misconstrued as an attempt by the Indian government to settle scores with China following the NSG fiasco.

When I saw Laxmi and Sudama pack their bags, I felt sad. Whether China misused them or India targeted them, it was sad to witness these messengers being shot down.