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Chang Ping speaking at Fudan University in 2010, photo by Hong Jianpeng (洪坚鹏)

Chang Ping (长平), a journalist at the Southern Media Group, was forced to quit at the end of January. The Guardian reported that Chang said "It is not just because of one particular article, it is because I have always written critical articles." In 2008, during the time of the Tibet riots, Chang Ping wrote an editorial in Southern Metropolis Daily (南方都市报) saying that reporting of Tibet should be more open. After that, he had quietly gone back to working for the Southern Media Group.

Chang Ping speaks to Danwei just before the Spring Festival break about the forced resignation.

Danwei: In your interview to foreign media, you said that “being resigned” was due to your accumulated essays rather than individual essays. Why are you “being resigned” now?
Chang Ping: Because of “being resigned,” the cause isn’t with me. Also the system operates under the characteristic of operating behind the scenes, to the extent f not leaving a trace behind the scenes, therefore very few people know the specific reason. We can only analyze and guess, now they want me to quit, it’s because the authorities are more nervous, and are under higher pressure.

Danwei: In your point of view, talking in the short term, when will Chinese media become relatively loosened up?
Chang Ping: The end of the autocratic system is hard to guess. It won’t automatically stop, but needs to see the extent of social resistance. From the viewpoint of the authorities, the trend of controlling of the media is getting tighter, and the control is becoming more and more effective; but from the point of view of the media, when the banning reaches an extreme, the wall will fall one day. Many people look to the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, but they have forgotten when the media had high hopes for the “Hu-Wen system.”