Shanghaied in China

The current issue of The Prospect (the good one; the British one) has a great first-hand account from Mark Kitto, the media entrepreneur whose growing that's empire was seized by the state.

Kitto recounts how his standing went from good to great to tenuous to bad to worse. Below is an exchange that highlights just about the point where bad morphed into worse.

...I was talking to a young local journalist whose editor I had interviewed in the current issue. I had extracted another copy and was opening it up, when a short man in a suit appeared from nowhere and snatched it from my hand. He spoke fiercely to my acquaintance. I looked on awkwardly in silence as the newcomer flicked the pages and jabbed his finger at the advertisements. He was turning puce with fury. I strained to pick up the gist of his diatribe in the harsh Shanghai dialect.

"Illegal… should not be allowed… unfair… too much advertising… too much money… stop…" Then he drew a finger across his throat and for dramatic effect stabbed the same finger on the cover.

"Excuse me," I interjected in Mandarin. "But I don't think we have met." I offered him my card.

"You don't need to know who I am," he spat back, brushing away my card.

"Yet you seem to know who I am," I persisted.

"Huh," he grunted. "Since you are so ignorant, you may as well know I am one of your leaders. I am in charge of you. We know what you are up to. Your magazine is going to be banned. I'll make sure of that."

And so it was. Whole fascinating cautionary tale here.