Beijing, Mar.3.─ The plan was a simple one. We'd arranged to meet a woman in her village in China's central Hunan Province and to then travel with her by train to Beijing, filming as we went.
But we never did get to meet our interviewee.
The story we ended up with, however, reveals more about the exercise of power in China than any interview ever could.
It is one that involves violence, intimidation and a forced confession - my first in my long reporting experience in China - in which I found myself apologising for "behaviour causing a bad impact" and for trying to conduct an "illegal interview".
Yang Linghua was planning to take the train to Beijing because she is what's known in China as a "petitioner".
Every year, many tens of thousands of Chinese people - denied the possibility of obtaining any justice through the local Communist Party run courts - head to the capital, taking their grievances to the "State Bureau of Letters and Calls" ...
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