Reach for the World...but Only Once a Year

BEIJING --- While the idea of broadcasting officials taking foreign holidays disguised as overseas business trips is not unknown in China, the problem reached such levels that last year SARFT decided to crack down. In a rather simplistic and blunt move, it instituted a new internal rule that limits each senior official to just one overseas trip per year.

This rule may stop the antics of the few globe trotting execs who continuously abuse their positions, but it also affects the officials who are in charge of international relations, program trade and academic exchanges.

As we all know, the TV business is a people to people affair, especially in the production and distribution sectors. China has enough cultural obstacles to overcome in this regard without making it impossible for the key people to maintain consistent presence at peer and partner events.

The 'one trip' rule has also had another unfortunate and counterproductive side effect. It has created the general understanding that every senior leader should use his/her quota and make one trip abroad each year. The result is that even more officials are finding a reason to leave the country for work purposes, while the experts stay at home.

As China is making concerted efforts to promote export of cultural products and improve international cooperation ahead of the Olympic Games, the 'one trip' rule means more and more relationships in which the senior Chinese side cannot accept the offer of reciprocal visits.

China is a country that understands very well the importance of buy-in at senior levels and it knows that the same basic principles exist worldwide. By banning station leaders from traveling abroad more than once a year, SARFT is asking them to make an impossible choice.