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Tale of China’s Leader in a Taxicab Is Retracted Tale of China’s Leader in a Taxicab Is Retracted
(about 4 hours later)
HONG KONG — Cabs in China’s capital are notoriously hard to flag down, but chauffeur-borne senior officials rarely need a ride, and on Thursday uproar erupted over a report, later retracted, that the country’s top leader had taken a clandestine ride to mix with ordinary people. HONG KONG — For much of Thursday, a tale told by a Beijing taxi driver appeared to offer ideal political theater for the Chinese government: a humble cabby took the nation’s top leader, Xi Jinping, for an incognito ride and revealed Mr. Xi’s yearning to share the pain, and the congested streets, of a frustrated public.
A Hong Kong newspaper that often publishes articles favorable to the Chinese government, Ta Kung Pao, reported that the Chinese Communist Party chief, Xi Jinping, took a $4.40 ride from an inner-city Beijing neighborhood known for its bars to a hotel on the west side of town, bringing momentary celebrity to his reported cabby, Guo Lixin, and plaudits for Mr. Xi. Taxis in China’s capital are notoriously hard to flag down, but chauffeur-driven officials rarely need a ride, and the chief of the Communist Party even less often. So when Ta Kung Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper loyal to Beijing, published a detailed report about a $4.40 taxi ride that Mr. Xi and a colleague took in early March, chatting with the driver, Guo Lixin, about pollution and other woes, Chinese news Web sites celebrated the story as an example of Mr. Xi’s refreshingly down-to-earth style.
China’s official Xinhua news agency first confirmed the story through its feed on the country’s Twitter-like Weibo service, citing city transportation authorities and the Hong Kong newspaper. But later a Xinhua bulletin said the report was false, and Ta Kung Pao removed the report and a special Web page about what appeared to be a propaganda coup. The story was reported by several media outlets, including The New York Times. By the end of the day, however, the state-run media, which had initially given credence to the story, abruptly reversed course, and the tale was in shreds. The newspaper withdrew the report as false, and it and the news agency Xinhua were pilloried online, leaving China to ask a bizarre question: What does it mean when feel-good propaganda cannot be trusted even on its own fanciful terms?
“Real one moment, and bogus the next,” a Chinese writer, Cao Junshu, wrote on Sina Weibo, the country’s Twitter-like service. “Are you the authority for publishing real news, or fake news?”
Xinhua, citing city transportation authorities and the Hong Kong newspaper, at first confirmed the story via a bulletin on its feed on Sina Weibo. But a later Xinhua bulletin said the story was false, and Ta Kung Pao removed the report from its Web site.
“Checking has established that this was a false report, and we feel deeply distressed and extremely regretful about this,” the paper said in a statement on its Web site. “Such a major case of false news should absolutely never have happened.”“Checking has established that this was a false report, and we feel deeply distressed and extremely regretful about this,” the paper said in a statement on its Web site. “Such a major case of false news should absolutely never have happened.”
Initially, some citizens praised Mr. Xi’s reported taxi trip as a welcome break from the security that isolates him and other party leaders from the public. It was quickly featured on many Chinese news Web sites, which cited the Ta Kung Pao report. But the retraction brought criticism of the Hong Kong newspaper and Xinhua. The taxi ride had appeared to be one in a succession of common-man gestures that Mr. Xi had made since November, when he succeeded Hu Jintao as party leader. In March, Mr. Xi took over as president from Mr. Hu, a stiffly austere politician. Seeking to win over Chinese disenchanted by a political elite that seems aloof, Mr. Xi has demanded an end to banquets paid for by the government, and he has told officials to stop having the police close off roads when the officials travel.
“Real one moment, and bogus the next,” the Chinese writer Cao Junshu wrote on his Weibo page. “Are you the authority for publishing real news, or fake news?” Some Chinese at first praised Mr. Xi’s reported adventure as a break from the security that swaddles him and other Communist Party leaders. His “incognito trip” quickly dominated many Chinese news Web sites, which cited the Ta Kung Pao report, and The New York Times was among the foreign media outlets that reported on the story.
The report had appeared to be one of a series of down-to-earth gestures Mr. Xi has made since November, when he succeeded Hu Jintao as party leader. Mr. Xi took over from Mr. Hu as president in March. Mr. Xi has demanded an end to banquets on the government bill, and told officials to stop having the police close off roads when they travel. “It looks like Ta Kung Pao was fooled, but why then did Xinhua first say it was true?” said Chen Yongmiao, a rights advocate from Beijing who frequently comments on the Internet. “Fake or real, I think this episode will add to the arguments that Xi shouldn’t violate the traditional bureaucratic ways. It will be used to tell him to toe that old line.”
Ta Kung Pao initially thought enough of Mr. Xi’s ride to put up a special site, showing a map of the journey and pictures of Mr. Guo’s modest brick and concrete home in the rural northeast outskirts of Beijing. But the site was later removed. Calls to the company operating the cab reportedly driven by Mr. Guo were not answered during the day. Ta Kung Pao thought enough of Mr. Xi’s purported ride to put up a special Web page, showing a map of the journey and pictures of Mr. Guo’s modest brick-and-concrete home in the rural northeastern outskirts of Beijing. The paper reported that at first, Mr. Guo did not recognize Mr. Xi.
In February, Mr. Xi promised to fix conditions for Beijing taxi drivers, and this week the city government proposed policies that it said would raise their incomes and make it easier to find a ride. “I asked, ‘When you take a cab has anyone ever said you look like a certain man?’ ” Mr. Guo was said to have told the paper. " ‘Anyone ever said you look like General Secretary Xi?’ He listened and laughed and said, ‘You’re the first taxi driver to recognize me.’ ”
Even before the report was taken down, some were skeptical, online and on Beijing’s streets. The special site was later taken down. Calls to the company said to operate the taxi driven by Mr. Guo were not answered during the day, and he could not be tracked down. It is possible that Mr. Guo does not exist; the special report, while detailed, gave no clues about his address or whereabouts.
“I don’t believe you,” said Wang Yue, a cabby. “President Xi out by himself? Without all his bodyguards? Was the taxi followed by vans full of security guards? There is no way President Xi was taking taxis with only another person.” A Ta Kung Pao employee, answering the phone at the paper’s offices in Beijing, declined to answer questions about the episode. The man, who gave his surname as Xu, said it was “inconvenient to reply” to questions about what had gone awry.

Mia Li contributed research from Beijing.

Even before the report was taken down, some were skeptical, both online and on the streets of the Chinese capital.
“I don’t believe you,” Wang Yue, a Beijing cabby, said in an interview after being told of the incognito ride. “President Xi out by himself? Without all his bodyguards? Was the taxi followed by vans full of security guards? There is no way President Xi was taking taxis with only another person.”

 

Additional reporting by Jonathan Ansfield in Beijing
Additional research by Mia Li in Beijing