Dongxiwen | Salute to Chinese journalists in the war! What they record is not only the battlefield

China News Agency, Beijing, April 1 (report): Title: Saluting Chinese Journalists in the War Zone! What they document is not only the battlefield

Reporter He Shaoqing

The smoke of the U.S.-Israel-Iran war has not cleared, and the guns are still firing. In the past month, a group of Chinese reporters has walked against the rain of gunfire and bullets.

Using words and cameras, they record the “black venomous rain” in the streets of Tehran, and recreate the blood-soaked tragedy at Minabqibun Campus; they witness the devastation after missiles strike, listening to the people’s cries amid collapsed walls and shattered buildings; they continue to bring the on-the-scene reporting and in-depth observations about this war, so the world can see the truth of war.

Adventurous filming of Tehran’s “black venomous rain” in the city streets

During the conflict, Israeli fighter jets launched airstrikes on multiple large oil-storage facilities around Tehran, the capital of Iran. After the explosions, the oil tanks burst into fierce flames, sending poisonous black smoke straight into the sky. Soon afterward, black acid rain fell from the sky, and many residents developed symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, coughing, and burning eyes. Rolling thick smoke made daylight seem like night. Just as people were trying to avoid this black “venomous rain,” several Chinese reporters arrived on the scene.

CCTV’s reporter Li Jianan wrote in his article that on the tops of roadside cars and in the drainage ditches along the roads, there were black marks everywhere, and some residents experienced symptoms such as difficulty breathing and throat pain. Many residents wore masks, hurried along, and their eyes were full of fear and unease. An Iranian man told Li Jianan that this was an eerie kind of weather he had never seen before. “This black rain is even more despairing than the missiles—because in the end, we all have to breathe.”

Four days later, when Li Jianan passed by the targeted oil-storage facilities in eastern Tehran, he saw that it was still burning. This “black rain” is like a snapshot of the war’s wounds—it leaves not just a momentary injury. Some scars may take dozens of years, or even over a hundred years, to heal; others may never heal.

Missiles strike—our first reaction is not to hide, but to go to the scene

On March 13, a rally held under an airstrike took place in Tehran, the capital of Iran. On one side was a crowd holding up national flags and shouting slogans; on the other side were airstrikes, explosions, and rolling thick smoke.

Reports warned media and reporters to go to the scene cautiously, because further danger might exist. But even so, some Chinese reporters chose to rush to the front line. Xinhua News Agency reporter Shadati wrote: “Facing the risk of airstrikes, the morale of the parade marchers at the scene was not affected. Some members of the public raised Iran’s national flags even higher and shouted slogans more loudly. The parade line filled the roads and kept moving forward, even though thick smoke still hung ahead.”

Local media later confirmed that two people died in the airstrike.

At multiple news sites, one can often see Shadati with a microphone in his hand and a camera in the other. Ever since he began working in reporting after the U.S. military’s heavy deployment put pressure on the Middle East, he has continued ever since. Behind the scenes of his videos, thick smoke can be seen frequently; sometimes explosions were only a few hundred meters away from him.

Another Xinhua reporter, Feng Guorui, wrote in the China Association of Journalists’ “I’m on the Scene” column that, as ordinary people who grew up in peaceful times, when alarms suddenly blared, missiles with trailing flames streaked, and explosions shook the glass, fear was unavoidable.

But as soon as missiles came in, their first reaction was not to evade. Instead, under the premise of safety, they rushed to the scene quickly. “If we don’t go to the scene to record what we see and hear and spread it, the truth may be buried.”

Ask me why I didn’t evacuate? Because I’m a reporter!

Phoenix Television’s female reporter in Iran, Li Rui, has served as an overseas correspondent for 20 years, moving around across Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Libya. During the U.S.-Israel-Iran war, through war diaries, she showed to the outside world the war-zone journalists and ordinary people caught in the flames.

After the war broke out, one-third of people in Tehran had already left. Family and friends kept urging Li Rui to return to China. But Li Rui chose to stay: “I’m a reporter!”

Sometimes for safety, Li Rui had to hide in a washroom with no windows to write articles and handle work. Because even if an explosion happened there, shattered glass would not be able to hurt anyone.

In her most recent diary, Li Rui recorded an explosion scene in northern Tehran—half the outside of a building looked “normal,” while the other half was split down the middle as if by a giant axe. From the outside, people could directly see everyday life inside: the sofa was still there, and the pictures on the walls were still hanging. In just an instant, this home was torn apart—half of it was gone.

At the end of the interview, Li Rui received news that Trump had announced a five-day suspension of strikes on Iran’s power plants. “My first thought was actually anger: What about the people in those buildings? What about those who have already died? Does it just end like this?” Li Rui wrote in the diary.

Since the outbreak of the U.S.-Israel-Iran war, multiple reporters have been attacked and killed, or injured. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had pointed out that Israel’s forces launched attacks against reporters who were considered civilians. Reporters wearing clearly visible press badges were inside the attacked civilian vehicles, yet they were still killed by precision-guided weapons.

This is such a high-risk profession, but China has never lacked war-zone reporters.

Fang Dazeng, the first reporter to cover the Lugou Bridge Incident, was a war correspondent. In 1937, after he sent his last dispatch, “Changes in the Northern Segment of the Pinghan,” from Baoding, he disappeared into the flames of war, at only 25 years old.

Fan Changjiang, who at age 26 went alone to tour northwest China, spent 10 months and covered 4,000 kilometers, recording the true situation of the Long March, is a war correspondent. After his dispatch compilation, “China’s Northwestern Corner,” was published, it shocked the entire country.

Writer and translator Xiao Qian was a war correspondent. During World War II, he accompanied British troops across the English Channel several times, and accompanied U.S. troops as they pushed into the Rhine River. He was among the first reporters to enter Berlin. During the German bombing of London, he narrowly avoided death many times.

On May 7, 1999, when NATO led by the United States bombed China’s embassy to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Xinhua reporter Shao Yunhuan, aged 48, and Guangming Daily reporter Xu Xinghu, aged 31, along with his 28-year-old wife Zhu Ying, unfortunately lost their lives. In the final moments after the victims were killed, they were still organizing interview materials.

Amid the chaos of war, Chinese reporters are not unafraid of death. But for the sake of the truth, they refused to turn away in the face of death.

They record the truth of history, the complexity of human nature, and even more, people’s dignity and courage.

The black rain will end, the thick smoke will dissipate, and the ruins will eventually be rebuilt. But those real moments that were recorded have been forever fixed in time. (End)

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