Governmental Seminar

 

Speaker:　Nobuhiro Sakamoto (General News Desk Editor, News Center, The Nishinippon Shimbun)

Title:　Three Years of Closing in on the Giant Dragon: China as Seen through the Eyes of a Beijing Correspondent

 

Date&Time:　12 Jun. (Thu.) 2025,  15:00-16:30

Venue:　General Education Building 4F C401,  Kurokami North Campus, Kumamoto University

 

　　

Abstract:

What kind of image do you have about China? The world’s second-largest economic power locked in rivalry with the United States, the world’s oldest bureaucratic state boasting a history of 5,000 years, a leader in ICT innovation, a land of culinary delights, an authoritarian superpower… Whether you like China or not, the country is a “neighbor we can’t move away from” and, when thinking about Japan’s new possibilities in the future, it is a presence that cannot be overlooked. Over the course of three years from 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world, I, a Beijing correspondent from The Nishinippon Shimbun, a regional newspaper in Kyushu, traveled to a total of 114 cities across all 30 provinces, autonomous regions and directly controlled municipalities of mainland China — with the exception of the Tibet Autonomous Region, where foreign reporters are restricted. Based on what I directly saw and heard with my own eyes and ears, I would like to share with you an unfiltered portrait of China, including off-the-record accounts. I hope this will be an opportunity for us to think together about how to face this giant dragon.

 

Email address for correspondance：　daigakuin-kyoiku[atmark]jimu.kumamoto-u.ac.jp （[atmark]→@）