Most recent post in Foreign media on China

Danwei interviews Jonathan Watts: "Copenhagen will shape our lives for years to come"

AXL091225jon.jpg
Jonathan Watts; photo courtesy of the journalist

The Guardian's Jonathan Watts reported on Japan for seven years before taking up his post in Beijing in August 2003.

His career includes coverage of the Asian financial crisis 1997-98, the G8 summit in Okinawa in 2000, the South Korea-Japan World Cup 2002, the Tsunami disaster in 2005, the Sichuan earthuake and the Beijing Olympics of 2008.

Watts was a contributor to Mother Jones, The Christian Science Monitor, The South China Morning Post, The New Statesman and The Asahi Shimbun, as well as contributing to TV.

He is currently putting the finishing touches on a book about the environment, When a Billion Chinese Jump and working as The Guardian's first Asia Environment Correspondent.

Danwei asked Watts some questions about Copenhagen, the media backlash against China following its close, and the environment reporting projects that he has been conducting, and doing as part of a team.


Danwei: Were you optimistic before taking off for the Copenhagen summit?
Jonathan Watts: I was impressed with the progress that was made before the summit started. Getting so many nations, including China, US and India, to declare carbon targets was an achievement. I did not have high expectations for the Copenhagen conference, but I was hoping to see a little movement on some of the major issues.

Danwei: At which point - before or during Copenhagen - did you realize that the climate accord was going to freeze Europe out and as Miliband said, be "hijacked by a group of countries"?
JW: I don't see it quite as you describe. There was a gulf in the expectations of the different parties. It soon became apparent that the BASIC group (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) were playing for a 0-0 draw. They did not want to sign up to anything that would constrain their future economic growth. Europe wanted ambitious, legal targets for 2020 and 2050. The US was most concerned about ensuring China made its emissions data more transparent and avoiding criticism for its dismal record in recent years. Europe was the furthest from achieving its goals, which is depressing as I think its targets were
the best way to keep the rise in temperature below two degrees celsius. China and the US, the world's two biggest emitters, came away happier as they can now continue emitting without legal constraints for a longer period of time, perhaps indefinitely.

 
More posts in Foreign media on China
China: The inevitable next global power?
TIME's Austin Ramzy on GDP growth, the Global Media Summit and the TIME China blog
James Kynge: West miscasts Tiananmen protesters
The Daily Telegraph's Richard Spencer on history and relocation
The WSJ China Journal's Sky Canaves talks law and farmers
The New Yorker's Evan Osnos on writing from China
Veteran China photojournalist H.S. Liu talks domestic media
Economic downturn: Malcolm Moore's Yangtze river delta trip
Trade unions and social unrest in 2009
37 years in China: CNN Beijing bureau chief Jaime FlorCruz
Daily Telegraph hoaxed by spoof "character of the year" story
New York Times exposes their own 'anonymous' source
Singapore is cool
The Western media on China, the Olympics and Tibet
Yang Rui, the Dalai Lama and a scary caller from Iowa
Challenging China bashing
Give Kristof a piece of your mind
The Second Danwei Plenary Session
Western media manhunt
The junket to Tibet
What should be condemned?
Black days for the Dålai Låma
The dark side of China
How should we translate 'cheng guan'?
Best and worst of the China hacks
A new twist on an old cliché
Tally ho, what what, Englishmen all drink cups of tea
Nonsense journalism in The Spectator
Nonsense reporting about China
Harmonious Goldkorn
China's nuclear option — dumping dollars
The rare pleasure of a hotel shower
Asia Times: guilty of plagiarism?
Small Swords
Shanxi slaves and the Labor Contract Law
Were Time and Fortune wrong about Hong Kong?
Chinese Internet responses to slave children case
Protest at Real Salt Lake vs. China friendly
Look east Ms Bunting
Danwei TV on CNN.com
The Times to Murdoch-bashers: We're doing fine
Wall Street Journal China bureau to Murdoch: stay away!
Wall Street Journal wins Pulizter Prize for China reporting
Mia Farrow's "Genocide Olympics"
State media shenanigans and responsible blogging
Is China a military threat to the U.S.?
China sex cliches, inflated circulation numbers and The New York Times
Exploitation and The Blood of Yingzhou District
China Specials: Colbert Report and The Times
Hu Jintao in Africa: a roundup of news and views
China in headlines
Time magazine's China blog
Who has it in for China?
Survey: China foreign correspondents and blogs
China Businesscast: The Future of Chinese Media
Africa and China: The Great Ndaba
Xinhua's new rules; foreigners' old complaints
Rui'an protests documented online
Three Gorges movie wins Golden Lion
Actress accuses CCTV director on blog
Spoofing fights back
Nearly three million cars in Beijing
Karaoke fees and interest rates
CCTV will not change its name
CCTV investing in Hong Kong TV, People's Daily editors on acid
Battling street patrols and Li Yuchun
Celebrating freedom, until the next clampdown
Danwei Noon: Breast enlargement ads, dogs and steel
Is Steve Ballmer the Deng Xiaoping of Microsoft?
Ellen Bork and China's fizzle
Media Partners
Visit these sites for the latest China news
090609guardian2.png 090609CNN3.png
China Media Timeline
Major media events over the last three decades
Danwei Model Workers
laomo2008fpA.jpg
Recommended blogs and new media
Books on China
Diamond Hill by Feng Chi-shun: Feng's memoir Diamond Hill describes an era of gambling and gangsters, Suzie Wong and squatter villages, fires and food stalls, and the Kowloon Walled City and its white powder. "A time when people were poor, but life was rich," he says. The world that he grew up in no longer exists, but his book - the first ever on the Diamond Hill refugee settlement, in either Chinese or English - offers a candid picture of what life was like for most Hong Kong residents in the 1950s.
William A. Callahan's China: The Pessoptimist Nation: China: The Pessoptimist Nation shows how the heart of Chinese foreign policy is not a security dilemma, but an identity dilemma. Through a careful analysis of how Chinese people understand their new place in the world, the book charts how Chinese identity emerges through the interplay of positive and negative feelings in a dynamic that intertwines China's domestic and international politics.
The WTO ruling: a half victory at best: In August 2009, a World Trade Organization panel ruled against China's system of monopoly control over entertainment products. Was this the victory supporters hailed as the dawn of a new day for American and global entertainment companies in the China market?
Front Page of the Day
A different newspaper every weekday
From the Vault
Classic Danwei posts
+ Street hawker cries of Beijing (2006.12): Yang Changhe demonstrates hawker's cries in a video shot by Muzimei.
+ New Weekly: Do Chinese kids know anything about traditonal Chinese culture? (2004.06): Q: Do you know what China's four great inventions are? Paper, printing, the compass and gunpowder 49.3% know all four, 37.3% get one or more wrong, 13.3% don't know at all (2004.06.12)
+ Some questions about SARFT's full-stop for Red Question Mark (2007.09): SARFT axes Red Question Mark (红问号). He Dong (何东) responds.
Danwei Archives
Danwei Feeds
Via Feedsky rsschiclet2.png (on the mainland)
or Feedburner rsschiclet.gif (blocked in China)
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Main feed: Main posts (FB has top links)
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Top Links: Links from the top bar
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Danwei Jobs: Want ads
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Danwei Digest: Updated daily, 19:30