As a famous host and reporter of CCTV, Shui Junyi's interview career can be described as brilliant. He has interviewed hundreds of celebrities and dignitaries, and his footsteps have spread all over the world, and he has won many awards such as the "Golden Microphone" Award and the China Radio and Television News Award.
Water is equal
Among the many celebrities and dignitaries he interviewed, there was one interview that he remembered vividly — when he interviewed U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Shui Junyi's international group of the CCTV News and Commentary Department has a tradition of interviewing international dignitaries. In March 1998, the United States announced that US President Clinton would conduct a nine-day state visit to China from June 27 to July 3.
It was difficult to interview Clinton not only because he was the president of the United States, nor because Shui Junyi and his colleagues were ill-prepared, but because of the long wait. Since Clinton arrived in China on June 27, Shui and his colleagues have been anxiously awaited. In order to complete the interview, the CCTV News and Commentary Department and the Overseas Center formed a strong interview team, the hosts were Shui Junyi and Chen Xiaowei, and then there were three reporters, two editors, three cameramen, two lighting engineers, and a recording engineer, a total of 13 people. The whole set of people has been on standby, but countless inquiries and so on are uncertain answers.
Clinton visits Xi'an
On June 29, before Clinton was about to leave Beijing, Foreign Ministry personnel were still negotiating with U.S. personnel, but the results conveyed to Shui Junyi broke him — the possibility of an interview was almost zero.
Clinton's next stop is Shanghai, will she be able to complete the interview in Shanghai? Shui Junyi and others still did not give up, they boarded the civilian flight and followed the US "Air Force One" presidential plane south.
Clinton and his party chartered portman, a five-star hotel in Shanghai, and demanded that no unrelated personnel be allowed to enter. Shui Junyi and the others had to stay in a nearby ordinary hotel. On the morning of the 30th, the restless Shui Junyi continued to call the head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the US news official, and the news received was "no news" and "no news". As Shui Junyi himself, whether in Sarajevo, where the war is raging, or in Baghdad, where the god of death is shrouded, he has never encountered a situation where there is a news event that cannot be collected. At this time, he was extremely anxious, and in desperation, he conveyed such a message to the US personnel: More than ten people in our CCTV group have followed Mr. President to Shanghai in order to interview President Clinton, and if we cannot complete the interview, we will be very disappointed, and it is impossible to follow guilin or even Hong Kong.
Perhaps it was Shui Junyi's psychological warfare that played a role, and of course it was more likely that the effect of the Active Mediation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was that Shui Junyi received a call from Paul, the US press officer who had been in contact with them, and Paul said: "I can't give you any news, nor have I received any reply from above." However, I would like to ask some technical questions. Then, Paul asked about the broadcast time, program length, ratings of "Focus Interview", whether the interview team used Chinese or English, and how to delete if the interview time exceeded the broadcast time of the program. As an old reporter, Shui Junyi heard the other party's voice, and it is estimated that there is a play.
After putting down the phone, Shui Junyi and the whole group once again refined the interview topic, interview scene, etc. Although Chinese Foreign Ministry personnel told them that the interview time might be the afternoon of July 1, the interview team began to stand by early in the morning. Unexpectedly, at 9 o'clock in the morning, the Foreign Ministry personnel called: "5 minutes to the Portman Hotel, now the interview." "I didn't expect the news to come so suddenly after a long wait.
5 minutes is too short, and after everyone has rushed into the three taxis with a large pile of things such as cameras, tripods, lamps, microphones, recording stations, etc., it has passed, but another problem is in front of them: although it is only a kilometer away from their hotel to the Portman Hotel, it is a one-way street, and because the president's convoy is approaching, it has been under martial law, if the detour takes 20 minutes, what should it do? "Break through!" The driver was frightened, and Shui Junyi inserted their special press card for this interview under the windshield of the car, letting the person sitting in front hold the camera. The police along the road saw this and watched them pass.
Just arrived in front of the Portman Hotel, but found a large number of vehicles lined up, police lights flashing, the president and his party are about to leave. Shui Junyi, who was anxious to arrive, got out of the car and ran into the hotel. The Foreign Ministry personnel who were anxiously waiting for them told Shui Junyi: "Clinton is going to the Shanghai Stock Exchange soon, and you can only follow them to the exchange, where we will arrange time for the interview." ”
Clinton visits the Shanghai Stock Exchange
The interview team had to get into the car again and follow the huge presidential convoy to the Shanghai Exchange. They waited there until two o'clock in the afternoon, when Shui Junyi finally got a reply from the other side, and Clinton walked into their interview room.
Compared to the long wait, the interview time was only given 15 minutes. Clinton looked tired in an interview, but soon his attention began to focus and seemed engaged. Shui Junyi later said: "This is the first time I have approached Clinton face to face to interview him, and he gives me the impression that people are relatively young. He talked about environmental issues, young people going online and other issues. In the interview, he appeared to be sincere, and it could be seen that he was energetic, quick thinking, and had a wide range of interests. He spoke very well, and I spoke to him in English and found that his words were both accurate and not rigid. "Maybe because the conversation was relatively harmonious, 25 minutes have passed, and no one from the US side has come to remind me."
After the interview, Clinton smiled and said to Shui Junyi, "You did a good job" (good job!). ), and said that the trip to Shanghai was simply "great, I didn't expect it to be so good." Shui Junyi said to him: "The next stop you are going to, Guilin, is more beautiful." Clinton said: "I have long heard that Guilin is wonderful, and I dreamed of it." ”
After Clinton left, Shui Junyi and his colleagues did not have time to experience the joy of "victory" and rushed all the way to the Shanghai Television Station to edit the material they had just recorded. At 19:30 p.m., after shui Junyi finished their task of transmitting news to Beijing, they rushed to the airport non-stop and returned to Beijing to produce the "Focus Interview" broadcast the next night. When they boarded the last flight to Beijing that day, they suddenly felt uncomfortable in their stomachs, because they had rushed to interview Clinton one day and did not care about eating.