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Acclaimed TV anchor feels heat for having child in America
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RENOWNED China Central Television anchor and reporter Chai Jing is also an acclaimed public intellectual and bestselling writer. And the CCTV celebrity now has a new title: mother of a newborn American daughter.
After almost a year’s disappearance from public view, Chai is back in the media spotlight. She was photographed carrying a baby in her arms during the recent Spring Festival holiday at the Beijing Capital International Airport.
It was revealed that 38-year-old Chai had been in the United States to give birth to her first child. The fact quickly fired up her many detractors.
Critics find it hard to swallow the idea that an anchor for the state broadcaster, a prominent insider, beneficiary and poster girl of the state media system, should choose to join the so-called “birth tourists” who flock to the US to have American babies. The US Constitution grants US citizenship to anyone born on its territory. Citizens can easily attend school in the US and when they get older, they can also bring their family to the US.
Chai joins a much-publicized and domestically criticized wave of wealthy Chinese emigrating to the West, taking their talents, investments and children along. Emigrants often cite a better life for their children overseas, including education and career advancement, cleaner air and water, safer food, and a more relaxed environment.
Chai has an impressive resume. She’s a radio broadcaster-turned-TV anchor and has hosted well-received interviews with a range of public and private figures. Her intelligent, straightforward questioning style, free of sensationalism and exaggerated body language, have made her almost a cult figure. It was unclear when she would be back on the air.
Yet Chai is also no stranger to ad hominem criticism. Early last year, she was targeted by her critics who said they wanted to “knock her from her pedestal.” The campaign started as gossip about past flings and then morphed into questioning of her credibility as a reporter. Lu Qiu Lu Wei, a famous Hong Kong-based reporter and blogger, criticized Chai for “shallow” and “unprofessional” coverage, saying she seldom “got behind the scenes to probe the root cause of her interviewees’ plight.”
Media critic Dong Lu went further, saying Chai’s success relies on “dining and hobnobbing” with male old-timers from CCTV and benefiting from the state broadcaster’s immense influence. Everything is set for her, and all she needs to do is to strike poses and playact, said Dong.
At the center of the maelstrom, Chai didn’t hit back at that time, nor has she responded to the recent furor over her American-born daughter. In this way she has denied her critics a chance to escalate the bickering.
Chai’s supporters, however, point to the hypocrisy and myopia of her critics, some motivated by “patriotism” and some perhaps by jealousy. They cite the case of Sima Nan, a left-wing hack, who slams US “hegemony” every day but has obtained US citizenship for his American-born son. Thus, it is unfair to single out Chai, supporters say.
Though we all have voyeuristic proclivities, in fact, any public figure is entitled to some privacy as long as he or she is not engaged in illegal activity.
Whether Chai chose to give birth in the US or in China is a matter of personal choice, and has nothing to do with patriotism or loyalty to the system that helped catapult a talented person to fame.
Perceived contradiction
Unfortunately, (alas a bit quaint), that’s not how her critics view the baby saga. Their broadside can be explained by a perceived contradiction between an anchor who says she cares so much about China’s disadvantaged groups and a mother who appears to think there is no future for her daughter growing up in China. Their message seems to be that she is a double-dealer and hypocrite.
Given her insider status, many people have exceedingly high expectations of Chai. She is as much a product of the system as an advocate for it, so she HAS to be a patriot and raise her child in a perceived patriotic way — that is, inside China like any other good Chinese. Giving birth in the US, a country that generates mixed feelings among Chinese, is an act of treachery, in the eyes of many people.
For them, Chai’s choice speaks volumes about her apparent lack of confidence in China’s future, at a time of growing concerns about increasing emigrations of wealthy Chinese and officials to the West. The quest for a better education and development opportunities for offspring is a totally legitimate right of parents. The reason this is so harshly criticized has a somewhat populist ring, but it is not entirely unjustified.
Critics say that after some US green card-holders plunder the wealth of the nation, pollute its environment and pocket illicit gains in China, they go abroad and leave behind a mess at home. Recently, Canada shut its doors on wildly popular investor visa immigration, a move widely believed to target affluent Chinese, despite Canadian clarifications that cite an enormous backlog of applications from Asia. This setback, of course, will not deter China’s nouveaux riches. With highly sought-after Chinese money in hand, they needn’t fret over finding a Western country to welcome them.
Chai Jing may not fit the image of uncouth nouveau riche, but her maternity trip to the US is enough reason for public disenchantment with her. In a sense, she is a prisoner of her own visibility. For people who are keen to foment hatred of China’s upper crust, she has happened to become a focus of their fury.
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