The George W. Bush Years

This is a set of signed edit instructions for a John King news package about the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Shanghai, China, which took place from October 20-21, 2001. Originally planned as an international economic summit, the event took place shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in America. Before attending the summit, America had not yet authorized a military response to the terrorist strikes. The conference did focus on globalization issues and new economic problems, but counterterrorism became an important topic.

When President George W. Bush arrived in Shanghai for the summit, he arranged to meet with delegations from China, Japan and South Korea for additional consultation on terrorism. Bush also encountered Russian President Vladimir Putin at the meetings and sought support in the fight against terrorist threats.

There were over 3,000 international journalists in Shanghai for the APEC meeting. The Chinese government spent large sums of money to upgrade the city’s hotels and infrastructure in order to present the best possible image of China to the world. With the appearance of the world’s media, China’s internet censors loosened their control over certain internet sites. They allowed access to western media outlets such as CNN, the BBC and the Washington Post.

I worked with John King at the Summit. This was his script and edit instructions for a news package about the results of the meeting that had occurred during the final day. After shooting a standup close (ending) for the story, I asked John to sign the script and I retained it when the edit process was complete.