Interview with an Official

On October 5, 2009, I had the chance to interview Mr. Wen GaoChao. Mr. Wen is the head of the Environmental Protection Bureau in Xinyi, Jiangsu Province. He has held that position for two years.

My conversation with Mr. Wen was in no way surprising, knowing what I knew about Chinese officials.

1) They have prepared responses.
Frequently, my questions were met with neat 3- or 4-part answers. Mr. Wen could easily list the four purposes of his bureau, four areas of focus within protectionist activities, three reasons China values the environment, etc.

2) They know how to talk the talk.
Mr. Wen's words were those of someone passionate about the importance of environmental protection. Early on in the interview, he stated: "环境保护, 就是保护我们的生命线." ("Protecting the environment is protecting our lifeline.")

3) They know their strengths.
Mr. Wen emphasized the policies already in place to protect well-water, over and over again describing how manufacturing firms cannot pollute within a certain radius of a well.

4) They are abstract in addressing their weaknesses.
While I received elaborate responses to the objectives of the bureau and why Mr. Wen felt environmental protection was important, when I asked about the challenges of the bureau, he said simply that every organization encounters difficulties.

5) They never forget their bottom-line message.
Long after I finished with my questions, Mr. Wen continued to talk about the importance of environmental protection as a global struggle and the need for the U.S. to pull its weight in the effort. While I knew this was the message being sent from Chinese to American diplomats, I didn't entirely expect to be hearing it first-hand myself. But of course there was no question - every official in China knows this is the message to get across, and not a single one of them would have missed mentioning it to me.