A week in China brought extraordinary technology, ancient history and a reminder that journalists around the world share something essential: the responsibility to earn their readers’ trust.
I’m not naive.
I know that a polite invitation to attend a journalism conference in China is an invitation to engage in a sophisticated exercise in soft diplomacy.
But let’s be real: it’s not as though China is the only country that adopts such practices. So in the middle of this month I joined hundreds of international and local media types in China’s ancient capital Nanjing for the 2026 Belt and Road Journalists Forum. It was a week of visits to local industrial and cultural sites, roundtables and speeches. One of the central topics was how journalism is dealing with the threats and opportunities of AI, and that is a universal, existential concern for all who are interested in the provision of fact-based news and analysis.
And there is always much to be learnt by steeping yourself in a culture and society for a week – especially when it is China, a country subject to mainstream media scaremongering and misunderstanding on an almost daily basis in Australia. It never ceases to amaze me that we spend so little time seeking to better understand a country that is so important in our region, and globally, so fundamental to our economy, and with which we have such close people-to-people ties.
So what did I learn and what did I bring back?
For a start, a grab bag of new knowledge about the ever-impressive technological advances in China. I have already touched on the revolution in Chinese-made electric cars. Renewable energy and AI are developing at epic scale and blistering pace. We saw Australian steel being processed in an almost entirely remote-controlled factory, driverless fire trucks, and really good rap-dancing robots. All this modernity ringed by the Nanjing wall, built to last by Ming Dynasty bricklayers.
So I came back with a clearer understanding of Chinese achievement: advances and history that are important for all.
But I also returned with a strong reminder of the collective power and common instincts of journalists worldwide, from vastly different political and cultural backgrounds. The group came together in China from all ends of the globe, from Kyrgyzstan and Croatia, Brazil and Namibia, Indonesia and India. Most had a particular connection to China and a depth of understanding of the country that outstripped many.
All were sceptical, some scarred, but all were storytellers at heart. All were driven by the tales of their people, but were looking across national borders to see, and tell of, common struggles, common triumphs. All knew the only way to hold on to the most precious thing a journalist has, the reader’s trust, was to tell real, well-crafted stories based in sometimes hard truths.
This week we bring you the pick of the speeches from that wise group, one from Croatian Dragan Nikolić, who asks how we can use AI without allowing it to destroy that precious trust. The second piece will run on Saturday, from a very impressive Namibian reporter Gordon Joseph. He asks, “Who gets to tell our stories?”, calling time on a global news landscape marked by the imbalance between the Global North and the Global South.
Meanwhile, this week has brought some good news in the form of election results in Brazil, with Flávio Bolsonaro seen off (genuinely – he has already fled the country) by the 81-year-old incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. My favourite part of the campaign was the election debate – which in Brazil is effectively the two men facing off. Many commentators have pointed out that Bolsonaro junior lacks his father’s flair and political savvy. When the 45-year-old cast it as a bad thing that 73 per cent of prison inmates supported Lula da Silva, quick as a flash Lula da Silva replied that he was happy to have Bolsonaro senior’s vote.
We will continue to follow the results of the Israeli election, with live results from Al Jazeera still coming in under their hyper-complex system (remembering that Al Jazeera and other reliable news sources are forced to report from outside Israel, due to government bans).
Next week AUKUS will be a focus as the independent public inquiry makes its final report.
Until then.
Catriona Jackson is the Chief Executive and Editor of Pearls and Irritations.