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A bridge on the Nu River where the dam is to be built
Photo: GREG BAKER / AFP
In China, the real story is often very different from what it initially appears.
In the case of the Green Peacock, the reports went something like this: Activists are suing against environmental destruction, the courts agree, the construction company has to crush the dam - proof that the Chinese rule of law works.
We only found out through our on-site research that a completely different dynamic had taken place behind this surface, namely that the top Beijing power circles apparently intervened in favor of species protection.
In other countries such findings are everyday journalists' everyday life, in the People's Republic they are an exception.
Because many Chinese avoid talking to foreign journalists.
In the ranking of press freedom, the country ranks 177th out of 180.
The Communist Party's pressure on interlocutors has increased since the beginning of the pandemic.
We were all the more pleased that the hero of the story was not intimidated by this.
Gu Bojian decided to travel with us through Yunnan, to the sites of his battle.
I don't know whether he noticed the car that was following us.
His willingness to speak had no consequences for him.
Gu is writing his doctoral thesis in Shanghai, which deals with protective measures for the green peacock.
He observes the birds using video cameras, and in the spring he even saw a newly hatched peacock chick.