“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves,” notes Sasha Gong, the new Chief of the Chinese branch at Voice of America (VOA), echoing the revered American World War II broadcast journalist Edward Murrow. “It means that if you don’t question authority, then you will get a government of wolves. I am always in search of answers in an effort to know why things are the way they are.”

Ms. Gong even asks her own co-workers at VOA to question her authority, which she said would produce work that boasts of integrity and creativity.

“I don’t want a staff of ‘sheep,’” Ms. Gong said. “I care more about intellectual authority on their part rather than institutional authority (from me). So as a leader, I know I must accept criticism from them and learn to be creative and understanding.”

As the first Asian American and journalist at the helm, Ms. Gong insists on asking tougher questions together and taking on more diverse stories that perhaps other news outlets may overlook.

“I am happy to be a part of the pool of information (in the news),” she said. “There is not too many media in the DC-area that cater to the Chinese audience aside from what is government owned.”

Ms. Gong criticized a Chinese government-owned broadcast network for spending thousands of dollars to do “propaganda abroad” and not fully covering all perspectives of a story.

“Money doesn’t buy truth,” Gong said. “Truth is what we want to provide to people. If the Dalai Lama comes to D.C., if there is a Falun Gong protest, who is going to cover it and broadcast the news in China? We aim to provide real facts and analysis for our audience.”

This past year, Ms. Gong said her team was one of the first news outlets to cover Wang Lijun, a former high-ranking Chinese deputy mayor that mysteriously fled to the U.S. consulate. Her team quickly gathered sources from their contacts in China and made a local call to the State Department after observing police personnel crowding around the consulate. Ms. Gong’s China branch was also one of the few news hubs that received exclusive coverage for China’s Vice President Xi Jinping’s visit to the States.

Ms. Gong has spent her first six months at VOA bolstering the content for Mandarin and Cantonese language radio broadcasts and increasing TV and Internet presence on www.voanews.com. She said VOA will continue adjusting to technology changes in China, where millions now have access to mobile devices and the Internet.

Career

Before coming to VOA, Ms. Gong ran for the Virginia House of Delegates in 2009 as a Tea Partier and wrote about her experiences in the book “Born American: A Chinese Woman’s Dream of Liberty.”

She also penned a well-received “The Cultural Revolution Cookbook” that includes memories of life in China and culinary delights. She also had a brief stint at UCLA to help found Radio Free Asia, a non-profit corporation that broadcasts the news in nine different Asian languages.

Her love of radio stems from her youth, as the self-described “troublemaker” took part in various underground Chinese protests that triggered her thirst for change.

In the late 70s, a twenty-something Gong questioned the local Guangzhou government’s inexplicable rule against listening to foreign radio, specifically VOA. The government, in return for her brazen attempts, took her into custody and reprimanded her with 11 months in solitary confinement.

The government released her from prison when Mao Zedong died, and a year later she came to the United States for a college education. Ms. Gong pursued a PhD in Sociology at Harvard, finding once again a subject that was also banned in China.

“Taking risks is natural for me,” she says. “If there is something I want to know, I will make every effort to understand. It makes me feel more alive to question authority…I have an inquisitive mind and hope that others, especially those of a younger generation possess that as well. It is what makes life meaningful and interesting. Sometimes it is painful to learn the truth. But it makes life worth living.”