David Barboza

I didn't even want my New York Times colleagues in Beijing to know what I was working on, because if they mention it to someone that they meet, then this is a really... I knew by... 2011, but especially by 2012, my life is in danger. They could easily kick me out. But also, my wife is a Chinese citizen. This is a super sensitive topic.

I didn't even want my New York Times colleagues in Beijing to know what I was working on, because if they mention it to someone that they meet, then this is a really... I knew by... 2011, but especially by 2012, my life is in danger. They could easily kick me out. But also, my wife is a Chinese citizen. This is a super sensitive topic.

And I remember calling one of our lawyers and telling him about this story. And he said to me, your life is in danger before you publish. That is going to be the most dangerous time for you before you publish this article.

And I remember calling one of our lawyers and telling him about this story. And he said to me, your life is in danger before you publish. That is going to be the most dangerous time for you before you publish this article.

I know this is going to be the most dangerous thing I do, that my wife and myself are somewhat at risk. So my goal early on was no phone calling, very careful like strategy of rather than calling up people and saying, can I talk to you about the prime minister's wife who's in the diamond business? My strategy was, I think I'm going to do a story about the diamond business.

I know this is going to be the most dangerous thing I do, that my wife and myself are somewhat at risk. So my goal early on was no phone calling, very careful like strategy of rather than calling up people and saying, can I talk to you about the prime minister's wife who's in the diamond business? My strategy was, I think I'm going to do a story about the diamond business.

And I'm going to ask people about the diamond business and then say, by the way, who is this woman? So, you know, how do you roundabout try to understand areas and then touch upon the thing without going directly for it? So I had a pretty complicated strategy going into it. But the key part of that was do not let people know what I'm doing. And if you looked through my reporting of 2012,

And I'm going to ask people about the diamond business and then say, by the way, who is this woman? So, you know, how do you roundabout try to understand areas and then touch upon the thing without going directly for it? So I had a pretty complicated strategy going into it. But the key part of that was do not let people know what I'm doing. And if you looked through my reporting of 2012,

I think I wrote 50 or 60 stories outside of this project just to sort of make people think I'm doing my regular job.

I think I wrote 50 or 60 stories outside of this project just to sort of make people think I'm doing my regular job.

So imagine like we're getting a set of documents in. It's coming from the Chinese government. It's stamped. It's coming in the mail. We open it. It's in Chinese. And we're like, wow, in these documents, here's the name of the prime minister's wife. Here's the name of the other relatives. Here's their ID number. Here is their resume. Is this a trick? Do they know that we're looking at this?

So imagine like we're getting a set of documents in. It's coming from the Chinese government. It's stamped. It's coming in the mail. We open it. It's in Chinese. And we're like, wow, in these documents, here's the name of the prime minister's wife. Here's the name of the other relatives. Here's their ID number. Here is their resume. Is this a trick? Do they know that we're looking at this?

In about May of 2012, we started to notice that maybe someone was on to what we were doing. And people started to question our driver, the New York Times driver for the Bureau in Shanghai, and some of my colleagues. And so in July of 2012, I said to The Times, we're quite nervous. We think they're on our trail. We don't know for sure, but they're asking questions.

In about May of 2012, we started to notice that maybe someone was on to what we were doing. And people started to question our driver, the New York Times driver for the Bureau in Shanghai, and some of my colleagues. And so in July of 2012, I said to The Times, we're quite nervous. We think they're on our trail. We don't know for sure, but they're asking questions.

I think I should come back and finish the article in New York.

I think I should come back and finish the article in New York.

They would be like, wow, your Chinese is really good. Because it was all in a lot of Chinese documents.

They would be like, wow, your Chinese is really good. Because it was all in a lot of Chinese documents.

I just scrambled every day thinking, if I get anything wrong, it's the end of my career. Believe it or not, the scariest thing for me about this story was not that the Chinese government was going to capture me or arrest me or kill me. The scariest thing was that The New York Times was going to capture me and kill me because I had gotten something wrong about it and that I would have no career.

I just scrambled every day thinking, if I get anything wrong, it's the end of my career. Believe it or not, the scariest thing for me about this story was not that the Chinese government was going to capture me or arrest me or kill me. The scariest thing was that The New York Times was going to capture me and kill me because I had gotten something wrong about it and that I would have no career.