Bai Yansong () (born August 20, 1968) is a Chinese news commentator, anchor and journalist for China Central Television (CCTV). He has become one of the most recognizable figures in China, serving as the lead anchor on stories such as the

Sydney Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

and the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Bai worked in the newspaper industry before moving to televised news and eventually became an anchor for ''Focus Report'' and ''Oriental Horizon'', where he had a reputation as a politically incisive journalist. During his time with CCTV, Bai has been involved in the establishment of several news commentary programs including ''Timeline'' and ''News 1 + 1'', the first live news commentary program in China. He has also been the anchor on several more news programs and was a host on the talk show '' Tell It Like It Is''. Born in

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for ...

, he lived on a university campus with his parents who were both professors and graduated from the

Beijing Broadcasting Institute The Communication University of China (CUC) () is a leading public university in Beijing. It is one of the China's key universities of 'Double First Class University Plan', directly administered by the Ministry of Education of the People's Repub ...

before beginning his career in journalism. Bai has extensively covered diplomatic ties between China and Japan during his tenure at CCTV and is part of a political consultancy group that advises the two countries on

Sino-Japanese relations Sino-Japanese is often used to mean: * Sino-Japanese vocabulary: That portion of the Japanese vocabulary that is of Chinese origin or makes use of morphemes of Chinese origin (similar to the use of Latin/Greek in English). * Kanbun: A Japanese meth ...

. He works to promote political reform through his position in the media, and critical reports on his programs have been suppressed by government censors at least once. As a humanitarian, Bai has been involved in supporting disaster relief efforts following the Sichuan earthquake and promoting efforts against

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

Early life and education

Bai was born in

Hulunbuir Hulunbuir or Hulun Buir ( mn, , ''Kölün buyir'', Mongolian Cyrillic: Хөлөнбуйр, ''Khölönbuir''; zh, s=呼伦贝尔, ''Hūlúnbèi'ěr'') is a region that is governed as a prefecture-level city in northeastern Inner Mongolia, China ...

, Inner Mongolia on August 20, 1968. His parents were intellectuals in Inner Mongolia and his father had been condemned as an "anti-revolutionary" when China was under the leadership of

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...

. Both of Bai's parents were professors and he grew up on the campus of a university during his time in Inner Mongolia. Bai later graduated from the Beijing Broadcasting Institute in 1989.

Career

Bai started his journalistic career working for the ''

China Broadcasting Newspaper China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones ...

'' of the

Central People's Broadcasting Station China National Radio (CNR; ; pronunciation: ) is the national radio network of China, headquartered in Beijing. History The infrastructure began with a transmitter from Moscow to set up its first station in Yan'an (延安). It used the call ...

, but did not consider himself suitable for televised news. He helped found the CCTV program '' Oriental Horizon'' and was chosen to be a regular anchor for the show in January 1996, sharing the post with several other journalists. Along with his co-anchors, Bai was seen as politically incisive and his work on ''Oriental Horizon'' gained him national notoriety as a television host. He hosted the first talk show in China, ''Tell It Like It Is'' alongside

Shui Junyi Shui Junyi ( zh, c=水均益, p=Shuǐ Jūnyì, born 20 September 1963 in Sanjia Jishuijia Village, Gansu), is a Chinese HanCui Yongyuan and other popular news hosts. He became anchor of '' Focus Report'' on China Central Television when it was the only news commentary program in China. During his time as anchor, Bai covered news stories such as the handovers of Hong Kong and

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

, the 50th Anniversary of the People's Republic of China, and the Sydney Olympics, making him one of the most recognizable figures in China. He has also established several news programs on CCTV such as ''Timeline'', modeled after

Ted Koppel Edward James Martin Koppel (born February 8, 1940) is a British-born American broadcast journalist, best known as the anchor for '' Nightline'', from the program's inception in 1980 until 2005. Before ''Nightline'', he spent 20 years as a broad ...

's ''

Nightline ''Nightline'' (or ''ABC News Nightline'') is ABC News' Late night television in the United States, late-night television news program broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC in the United States with a franchised formula to other network ...

'' on

ABC News ABC News is the journalism, news division of the American broadcast network American Broadcasting Company, ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other progra ...

. Bai's reporting was the primary subject of a book about ''Focus Report'' that was written by the show's producer. ''News 1 + 1'', another news program Bai started, was the first live news commentary program in China. ADBC Branch in BeiChuan after earthquake

ADBC Branch in BeiChuan after earthquake

In the midst of warming ties between China and Japan, Bai filmed a documentary piece for CCTV in 2007 focusing on Japanese culture and the early history of

. He had proposed filming the piece a year before, but says it was considered too sensitive to air until relations improved. Bai later presided over a forum on Sino-Japanese relations, which included ministerial-level officials from Japan and China and discussed issues such as military spending and Tibet. During the Sichuan earthquake, Bai served as the lead anchor and later noted the significance of open Chinese news coverage of the disaster by stating "this time, it is not a simple live coverage." His reporting on the quake was praised by CCTV editor Xiong Qu for its delivery with Xiong saying Bai "stood the test" as China's lead anchor. Some of the reporting in Bai's programs has faced opposition from government censors. After a program Bai was going to air on a chemical plant in Dalian was cancelled by censors, Bai commented on his blog to criticize the decision to cancel the piece, which led to his account being blocked. Dong Qian, co-anchor of Bai's ''News 1 + 1'' program, was temporarily taken off the air after

Bo Xilai Bo Xilai (; born 3 July 1949) is a Chinese former politician who was convicted on bribery and embezzlement charges. He came to prominence through his tenures as Mayor of Dalian and then the governor of Liaoning. From 2004 to November 2007, h ...

talked to the CCTV president about a piece on the program that highlighted serious concerns regarding the nature of Bo's anticorruption campaign in

Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a municipality in Southwest China. The official abbreviation of the city, "" (), was approved by the State Cou ...

Politics

Haiqing Yu has identified Bai as being part of the first generation of Chinese journalists to adopt an outsider's approach to journalism, as opposed to previous generations, who viewed their role as being to prop up the

Party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

and the government. Bai has stated that he tries to use his position in the news media to help instigate political reform and promote democratic ideals in China and supports liberal market reforms of government-run media. He argues that the media is more responsive to public needs when it is subject to market forces, but believes that news reform can only advance alongside political reform. In a commentary for '' The Beijing News'', Bai argued that insuring rationality in government was dependent on moving China further towards the rule of law. When Tibetan independence supporters disrupting the Olympic torch relay in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

prompted calls for a boycott of French retailers in China such as

Carrefour Carrefour () is a French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, France. The eighth-largest retailer in the world by revenue, it operates a chain of hypermarkets, groceries stores and convenience stores, wh ...

and

Louis Vuitton Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly known as Louis Vuitton (, ), is a French high-end luxury fashion house and company founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label's LV monogram appears on most of its products, ranging from luxury bags and lea ...

, Bai went online to oppose a boycott. He encouraged proponents of a boycott to be calm and consider the consequences for Chinese nationals working at the affected retailers. Bai is also a member of the

21st Century Committee for China-Japan Friendship First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: * World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

, a group that consults the two countries on policies concerning their mutual relations. Following a 2008 meeting of the group, he spoke approvingly of a speech by then Japanese Prime Minister

Yasuo Fukuda is a former Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 2007 to 2008. He was previously the longest-serving Chief Cabinet Secretary in Japanese history, serving in that role from 2000 to 2004 under Prime Ministers Yoshirō ...

for emphasizing a collective view of their interests stating that "For Sino-Japanese relations, it is no longer the question of 'You' and 'I'. Now we are a community of interests with our feet in Asia and facing the world together." Following anti-Japanese demonstrations over the East China Sea islands dispute, Bai decried acts of violence during the protests as committing crimes under the guise of patriotism.

Humanitarianism

Bai has served as a spokesman for efforts against

HIV/AIDS in China HIV/AIDS in China can be traced to an initial outbreak of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) first recognized in 1989 among injecting drug users along China's southern border. Figures from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, ...

. He was named the Image Ambassador for the AIDS Prevention Education Project for Chinese Youth following the project's establishment and served as an ambassador for the

China Red Ribbon Foundation China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. As a CRRF ambassador, Bai attended a gala that the group organized to promote efforts against AIDS on the eve of the 25th

World AIDS Day World AIDS Day, designated on 1 December every year since 1988, is an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease. The acquired immun ...

. During the gala, Bai held on-stage interviews with the Chinese Health Minister, the Executive Director of the CRRF, and the General Manager for the Global Fund. Following the Sichuan earthquake, Bai hosted a live program together with fellow CCTV hosts in order to raise funds for disaster relief. He also made a show of support for the victims when he was carrying the Olympic torch for the 2008 Olympics relay.

Bibliography

*''Painful and Happy'' (), (2000). *''Yansong Goes to Taiwan'' (), (2005). *''Yansong Goes to Japan'' (), (2007). *''Yansong Goes to America'' (), (2009) *''Are You Living Happily Now?'' (), (2010). *''A Person and This Times'' (), (2013). *''Walking Between Love and Hate'' (), (2014). *''Bai Say (Speak in Vain)'' (), (2015). *''Yansong Goes to Taiwan II: Distant History and Close Feelings'' (), (2016). *''All Things Will Come True'' (), (2016).

References

External links

Bai Yansong on CCTV's website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bai, Yansong 1968 births Living people CCTV television presenters Chinese people of Mongolian descent Chinese television journalists Communication University of China alumni Members of the 13th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Members of the 12th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference People from Hulunbuir