What was your first job as a journalist?
Covering Representative Office set up laws in China
Have you ever used a typewriter?
Yes
How is social media changing news?
Dumbing it down into small bites
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
TinTin
What does it mean to be a journalist?
Curiousity
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
As being on-the-ground
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
Pretty much two old fashioned tapping fingers
What's your favorite social network?
Don't really have one. I use Facebook for friends I personally know, and Linked In for business but they're only moderately useful.
Who do you wish followed you?
I'm happy with anyone who pays me the courtesy.
Why did you become a journalist?
Expressionism
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
Yes, Wrote a couple of pieces.
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
My Belt & Road Initiative work has been pretty cool.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Don't worry about grammar.
When's the best time to pitch you?
Anytime
What's the best pitch you ever got?
I appreciate all of them.
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
Some people have been very rude online about me without researching the background or bothering to discuss.
What's your favorite drink?
Borjomi. The best mineral water in the world and the second best in Georgia.
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
In the garden
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
The Russian classics. Inflight magazines. The FT. GQ. Nat Geo.
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
That China and Russia are run by total authoritarian states. They're not.
