By Caijing Staff

CJ: You are not a stranger to Beijing. You are not a stranger to China. How does this Olympics impress you?

Schlesinger: It impresses me very much, I think. If you compare Beijing now to the first time I visited at the end of the 1970s, it’s completely different. So just think about it: In a short, 30-year span of time, there has been a complete transformation. I lived here in 1991 to 1994. At that time it was, well, completely different.
 
CJ: And you know that China, the whole country, was really looking forward to the games. What do you think the Olympics means to China and the world?

Schlesinger: Oh I think, first of all, it brings the modern face of China to the world in a way that would be something unheard of. I mean, there are something like 20,000 accredited journalists here, 10,000 non-accredited journalists. So there are 30,000 journalists would now be in China. Reuters has a bureau in Beijng, and we also have quite a lot of correspondents here. But even Reuters brought 200 people to the Olympics who otherwise wouldn’t be here. So the number of stories, the number of pictures, the number of TV hours now broadcasting modern China, modern Beijing, are opening eyes to China. It is one thing to have development, opening and excitement for two weeks, but it’s another thing to build on that, and how it goes forward in the future.
 
CJ: How do you like the media coverage of the Olympics?

Schlesinger: I think what the media shows is part of the reality. The media reflects the facts, reflects what’s happening on the ground. But this is only one slice. The Olympics is also one slice of life. You cannot see the Olympics as normal for Beijing, or normal for China. So I think to really understand China, to really understand the society, you have to add up all the different pictures, good and bad, exceptional times during the games, normal times, tragedy, triumph.
 
CJ: Is it true that Reuters wants to be listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange? What’s your China strategy?
Schlesinger: I don’t think that is true. I think at one point our CEO just expressed a dream, but I don’t think there are any real plans. At the moment, it is too complicated. We are already listed in Toronto, in New York, in London. It will be too complicated to add another listing right now. So I think it is something our CEO once mentioned as our dream, but I don’t think it will ever happen. I think our CEO was just trying to say how important China is to us, because China is very important to us.

David Schlesinger has been editor-in-chief of Reuters since January 2007. He graduated from Oberlin College and obtained his masters degree from Harvard University, where he concentrated on Chinese politics. Schlesinger joined Reuters in 1987 as a correspondent in Hong Kong. Later, he ran Reuters’ editorial operations in Taiwan, China and the Greater China region from a series of posts. In 1995, he transferred to New York to become financial editor for the Americas and managing editor. From October 2003 until becoming editor-in-chief, he was based in London as the global managing editor. In his current role, Schlesinger leads a 2,400-member staff that produces written, photographic and video news coverage.