Hollywood Celebs’ Gossips

Chinese websites and BBS forums are flooded by the news saying the popular anchorwoman of country’s Central Television Station (CCTV) Fang Jing is a spy for Taiwan. The incidents started on June 9 with a blog post by A Yi GG who claimed Fang Jing was arrested on May 12 after obtaining the military intelligence and leaking them to the outside.

Fang Jing, 38, unmarried, was a Beijing native. After graduating from China Media and Communication University (formerly Beijing Film Academy), Fang Jing joined the CCTV in 1994. Fang Jing had since hosted CCTV’s branded programs like China News, Eastern Horizon, Focus Interview, and International Watch. In 2006, she became a host of military program Defense Watch, a position now brought her the spy gate controversy.

Who is A Yi GG? A Yi’s true name is Zhou Yi-jun. He currently is an associate professor affiliated with School of Journalism and Communication of China’s prestigious Peking University. Before becoming a university lecturer, A Yi was the creator and producer for numerous mega documentaries and once as a backup anchor for CCTV’s Focus Interview. A Yi, who has a Master degree in Law, previously hosted the program Century Culture Forum (世纪大讲堂) on Hong Kong Phoenix TV. A Yi’s more detailed biography can be found on Baidu Baike ( China’s answer to Wikipedia) here and here.

Fang Jing was first rumored to be a spy on a Chinese forum in May. But after the majority who read the story pointed out the accusation had no merits as it was lack of any reliable source(s), the incident naturally faded out.

But this time,  because of A Yi’s public status, his message which though did not say Fang Jing was a spy but mentioned she obtained the intelligence instantly stormed the whole China. When the official People Daily and other major portals re-posted the story on June 11, they all claimed Fang Jing was a suspected spy.

On June 12, China Daily, the English-language mouthpiece of the Chinese government, ran the story of CCTV anchor suspected of spying for Taiwan, read excerpts below

Fang Jing, the 38-year-old face of CCTV’s prime-time military program Defense Watch, is being investigated for possibly spying for Taiwan, colleagues told China Daily. The security authorities have neither confirmed nor denied the reports.

Fang, … started hosting the program in 2006. Her last on-air appearance was on the Sunday edition on March 1 when she hosted an episode about India’s military strength featuring Rear Admiral Zhang Zhaozhong, a military expert at the National Defense University. Fang’s segments often touch upon regional military topics and she compares China’s military capacity with foreign powers, often with the help of specialists from the People’s Liberation Army.

Zhang, who has been a frequent guest on the show, told China Daily Thursday night that Fang’s case is “still under investigation” and “no conclusion has been reached so far”. “She has not been jailed as is being rumored,” Zhang said. “But she is not hosting the program anymore, because she is currently being investigated.” He confirmed that Fang quit after the March 1 edition. Sources with CCTV also confirmed Thursday that Fang had been “taken away for a possible spy probe”. She was rumored to have been seduced by a man from Taiwan who was “eight years younger than her” and to have received money from him, the sources said.

However, things have changed a lot hours after China Daily published their first report on Fang Jing. People Daily and other major portals deleted the story they posted earlier. China Daily ran a second report saying Fang Jing denied suspected spying (the first one was dropped from its website without giving any explanation):

CCTV prime-time anchor Fang Jing on Friday denied rumors about spying, saying she has “never been questioned by any department on any issue whatsoever”.

Contacted by China Daily Friday morning, the 38-year-old face of China Central Television’s prime-time military program Defense Watch said the speculations by guest speakers and some CCTV staff are “not true”.

“No personnel from any department has questioned me on any issue whatsoever,” Fang told China Daily on the phone, adding that her absence from the program since March was “not related to any spying investigation”.

Fang Jing also denied in a series of interviews with Hong Hong’s Phoenix, Financial Times, Southern Metropolis Daily among others, saying she was not a spy. There were no new comments of A Yi GG on his explosive claim:

“The prim and popular younger sister Fang Jing wanted to obtain military intelligence to leak to the outside and therefore applied to become the host to Defense Watch.  She was arrested on the night of May 12”

If Fang Jing is turely not a spy?  The time will tell. But of course, the suspicion will not so easily fade away now.

“Fang Jing” opened a blog on Sina on June 11 night, her statement read:

“Recently a certain person [A Yi] wrote publicly in his blog to libel me maliciously.  I am deeply shocked and angered.  I hereby state: the contents of that essay were fictional and I will use legal means to defend my legal rights!” [translated by Roland Soong of EastSouthWestNorth Blog]

If this “Fang Jing” was indeed CCTV’s Fang Jing or not, only the person who opened the blog and real Fang Jing know, but there are still too many readers who are suspecting the blogger’s true identity. CCTV has a blog section for all of its hosts. But Fang Jing didn’t have a blog on the employer’s website.

Update:

In the interview with Phoenix, Fang Jing said the blog was hers. She also said she was just down at the office yesterday [June 11] and paid by CCTV, demonstrating she was still a CCTV employee. Unfortunately, CCTV so far hasn’t ushered in even a word for Fang Jing, neither confirmed nor denied she is a spy.

In the interview, asked about health, when will she return to work at CCTV, Fang Jing replied “inconvenient to disclose”.

In an intriguing blog post, Zhang Zhaozhong, clarified he and Fang Jing were just a relationship of being guest and host. He said he was unclear why she didn’t host her program because he didn’t pry into Fang’s private life.

Zhang, the Rear Admiral who was quoted by China Daily one day earlier, denied he said Fang Jing was “under the investigation.”  He accused the journalists and editors [from China Daily?] who published the “rumored” story are of the “low political level”.

Note: Either Zhang Zhaozhong or China Daily, there must be one side who had told a lie.

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Update: A Yi wrote a new blog post Fang Jing’s Own Voices

After interviewing Fang Jing, like other media, my old friends at Phoenix asked me to have some arguments, I refused to do so. If the hurts had caused [to Fang Jing], the following arguments would cause even more hurts to her, and would also implicated other friends. Let me hold the responsibility, here I say a “sorry” first. I really know the misery of the hurts as I myself was once also hurted. You are able not to mind the hurts, but your family can not, in fact, they are hurted the most.

For the journalists from various media you want to know what reasons made me mention the issue, who my sources were and where I obtained the details, and if I still have more explosive details that would get people “excited”, forgive me, please don’t make calls to my phone any more, I will continue to keep my lips as tight as like the lip tightened on the bottle.

Here I just stated four points:

1) Referring to that of my short blog post, I originally wanted the readers to watch the video of students making cheats during college entrance tests [produced by CCTV journalist Zhang Yu]. Habitually, I usually put a few words not related to the topic, so my focus was not on Fang Jing but Zhang Yu. However, I should have considered that people were much much more interested in the intelligence leak issue than the examination cheating.

2) Even though it was an irresponsible rumor, what I said was that I merely mentioned the intelligence leak, I never said Fang Jing is a “spy”. However, I should have realized this was so easy for many people to draw an equal mark between them except for the person like me who had specially studied the law.

3) Don’t say I don’t like Fang Jing. On the contrary, I believe, alongside with Elder sister Jing (Jing Yi Dan, producer and host of Focus Interview), the anchorwoman who is the most stately, elegant and withdrawn is Fang Jing, sometimes her video clips were played by me for the students to view on my classes. It’s very regretted that the second half of the only two sentences I wrote had hurted Fang Jing so so much.

4) To being a woman is very uneasy. Hope the storm calm down, Fang Jing can be all the best and returns to the screens earlier.

One more note, during the whole frenzy [that sparked Fang Jing Spying Gate incidents”, I had just written two sentences [in that short blog entry], I never accepted to be interviewed by any media.

A Yi’s new blog entry was translated by a lot of Chinese media as an apology to Fang Jing, but we think, it couldn’t be so simple, what he hinted inside is apparent.

A Yi also updated his old post, enclosed Fang Jing’s statement and a link to her blog.

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Update: During a live chatting session on Sina.com.cn, Fang Jing said she would never sell her soul and betray the Chinese people and China.