The Weekend Intelligence: Black boxes (part one): Michael Kovrig on how he became a political hostage in China
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.3 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 5 October 2024
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
One evening, Michael Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat, grabbed a late dinner in Beijing with his partner. When they arrived back at his apartment, men in black were waiting for them. Mr Kovrig was pushed into a waiting SUV. Handcuffed and blindfolded, he was driven to a detention centre in southern Beijing that would be his home for the next 1,019 days. September 24th 2024 is the third anniversary of Mr Kovrig’s release. And now he is ready to talk publicly about his ordeal.
On the Weekend Intelligence, we bring you the first in a two-part series from Drum Tower, our weekly podcast on China. David Rennie, The Economist’s geopolitics editor, speaks with Mr Kovrig about the night he was seized, and how his detention was part of a far bigger geopolitical game.
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Transcript
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| 1:01.9 | The Economist. |
| 1:09.0 | I'm Rosie Bloor and you're listening to the Weekend Intelligence. |
| 1:13.6 | This week we're doing something a bit different, sharing with you two special editions of Drum Tower, our sister show about China. |
| 1:21.6 | Michael Covrig was a Canadian diplomat when I first met him in Beijing in 2015. |
| 1:28.2 | We chewed over various stories, and I remember talking to him about how difficult it was |
| 1:33.0 | to understand a political system that was so hard to penetrate. |
| 1:37.7 | Unfortunately, Michael got an unparalleled insight into that system. |
| 1:42.8 | After leaving the diplomatic corps and joining an NGO, in 2018, |
| 1:46.8 | he was detained by the Chinese authorities and ultimately held for over a thousand days. |
| 1:53.3 | Today, David Rennie interviews Michael Kovrig about that experience. It's an extraordinary story |
| 1:59.1 | of time spent inside the Chinese Communist Party's security machine |
| 2:02.8 | and a unique lens onto, there's one evening that stands out. |
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