Until 2008, the only way Jane Zhang could go from her rural mountainous hometown of Enshi, Hubei, to the province’s capital, Wuhan, was a 24-hour-long bus ride. This relative isolation meant that the first time she interviewed for an international journalism program, she felt woefully unprepared. “That was the first time I felt the information gap between people from big cities and people from poverty-stricken counties like me,” she says.
But armed with a fierce desire to do journalism that made a difference, Zhang came to soar far above those mountains. Now, she’s emerged as an inimitable voice covering the fast-paced international tech boom. With stints at the South China Morning Post (SCMP) and Bloomberg, Zhang has homed in on political tensions in the U.S.-China tech war and China’s historical crackdown on its largest tech corporations — while simultaneously navigating unique ethical and political sensitivity concerns for everyday workers caught in the crossfire.
Zhang is now spending time at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. This year, she’s centering her attention on the incipient AI industry and its impacts on journalism. She spoke with me recently about finding her footing in global platforms and the world of tech giants. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Celina Zhao: Most of your education was in China, where viewpoints on news and journalism are often quite different than in the U.S. How did that shape your understanding of the two?
Jane Zhang: When I started at Wuhan University, I began to learn about topics and ideas I’d never been exposed to before. We were also required to read English books. What’s freedom? What’s news? And I got access to VPN for the first time in my life.
But at that time, VPN was not as important as it is today. When I first started journalism, there were still good investigative reporters in China who wrote in-depth pieces that drove positive social change, including the coverage of the Wenchuan earthquake and the Wenzhou high-speed railway accidents. Deep in my heart, I knew this was the type of work I wanted to do in the future.
CZ: How did that then lead you into the tech beat?
JZ: During my time as a graduate trainee at the South China Morning Post, I rotated through many desks. I liked tech, so I joined the tech team for my full-time job.
It was totally by coincidence that not long later, Huawei was put on the U.S. Entity List, and the whole U.S.-China tech war began. That was the start of the golden time to write about the U.S., China, and tech, and it’s still going on today. There are so many changes, and you get to write about so many different perspectives. So I really joined the right beat at the right time.
CZ: Your career has lined up with breakneck changes in the tech industry, including the Chinese government’s historic crackdown on e-commerce giant Alibaba. What was the most challenging part of reporting something with so many unknowns?
JZ: The tech crackdown started with the cancellation of an initial public offering by Ant Group, an affiliate of the e-commerce giant Alibaba, and a subsequent antitrust probe into Alibaba. The biggest challenge was that it was an unprecedented case. I must have gone through hundreds of China’s antitrust litigation cases in history. There were industrial, banking, electricity, utility, and not a single internet case. This was really the first one. Did the Chinese government single out Alibaba, or was the Chinese government not satisfied with China tech in general at that time? No one had a clue.
The other challenge is that in China, they tend to publish big news on Friday nights or over the weekend. When they announced the amount of Alibaba antitrust fine, it was a Saturday morning. I was still in bed, and my phone started to ring. I checked my phone, saw a number, literally jumped out of my bed, and started to write a story.
CZ: You’ve also done extensive on-the-ground reporting, talking to everyday people impacted by the crackdowns and wars. Many may not be familiar with how the press works. So how do you approach them?
JZ: Yes, they are the most vulnerable. For example, when I covered China’s crackdown on online education, many tutors who got laid off wanted to get their voices out, but didn’t know how foreign media works. If I use their real names, they might be put on a blacklist and can’t find jobs in the future.
I can try my best to protect them by saying they don’t have to answer hard questions and can refuse to give me personal or sensitive information. And I make it very clear in the beginning the ethical standards that I will adhere to. I will also tell them about who the audience of SCMP and Bloomberg is, and why I’m writing this story — that it’s important for people to know the real situation on the ground, and how it’s necessary to hold relevant parties accountable.
But for many China reporters, we know it’s more important to protect a source than break news. I have so many stories unwritten because I just need to protect my source.
CZ: Reporting in China is uniquely tricky because of the strong national tensions between Washington and Beijing, which can bleed into the cultural viewpoints towards tech. How do you balance that when writing for a global audience?
JZ: It’s really difficult, but the good thing about working in a global newsroom is that your editors and colleagues are all from different cultures, backgrounds, and countries. There’s a diversity of opinions. That, by nature, makes the piece more neutral and balanced. And I try to interview as many people as I can.
CZ: This year, you’re keeping tech at the forefront of your work, studying the effect of generative AI on the newsroom. What’s the current state of things?
JZ: There are divided opinions in the industry and global news rules. But AI is not a tool that just helps polish writing.
It’s also impacting content generation and content distribution. We already see the power of social media platforms like TikTok. Right now, the purpose of SEO editors is to change the headline so that when people search in the bar, it’s easier to find the story. But soon, people won’t search in the search bar. They’ll just chat with a chatbot or consume short videos in a video flow.
So how people consume news will be disrupted. It has already been disrupted.
CZ: Since this is already happening, should journalism lean into AI then?
JZ: Yes, newsrooms should embrace generative AI. We shouldn’t be too behind in adopting new tech. But we need to do it in a very, very cautious way.
Accuracy is the core of news. Even if a number is slightly different, there are consequences. Generative AI can create so much crap. The value for people, for reporters, for newsrooms, is the credibility of the information they generate. So that’s the thing we cannot compromise.
Celina Zhao is a student in MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing.
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