Washington is packed with restaurants, most of them doing rip-roaring business. Each day during the noon break, lobbyists, diplomatic officers, and reporters from around the world get together with U.S. Congressmen, their assistants, and government officials both major and minor over luncheon dinners, in what is really work under another guise.

"If you want to be a reporter, you've got to be hard-working and diligent and keep your nose to the grindstone," says Louise Ran Costick, a veteran economics reporter. Her sentiments are shared by several other Washington journalists: Generally speaking, reporters in the U.S. spend more time acquiring facts and educating themselves than do their counterparts at home, who are more apt to rely on wining and dining and cultivating personal relationships.

Societal factors are naturally involved. The U.S. is an extremely democratic country, where government officials want to communicate with the public and representatives want to let their constituents know what they are doing for them. Because of this, they basically have the desire to be interviewed. And if they refuse, a more convincing appeal is likely to be how many people the article or news report will reach rather than how close their personal relations with the reporter may be.

"Everyone knows that the U.S. is the place in the world that talks the most about freedom of the press," says Benedict Hsu, speaking from personal experience. "But the U.S. is also the place that discriminates the most against foreign reporters." The object that officials and representatives hope to communicate with is the public of their country. Why should they be interviewed by a foreigner?

Be that as it may, there are plenty of news sources in Washington and people willing to talk. What frustrates R.O.C. reporters the most is that much of what they learn they can't write about, or if they do, it's not printed.

Fredrick F. Chien, the R.O.C.'s representative to the U.S., once sighed: "Everything in Sino-American relations that's good for us--almost without exception--can't be discussed, and the things that are bad is what everyone sees." Because of our country's special situation, there are lots of things that both governments want to keep quiet about.

"The only thing you can write about now is the trade deficit," Rock Jo-shui Leng laments. "The aim is to maintain U.S.R.O.C. substantive relations, but the only news Chinese people have been seeing for a long time is the demands that the U.S. makes of us, and not the help it provides."

Adds George Shuang: "People may get the mistaken impression that the 'China Question' is a big topic of discussion in the U.S., but in fact it's not."

Nearly all of our news people in Washington hope that more space will be devoted to international news with the lifting of press restrictions. "International contacts, as we all know, are getting more and more frequent, and the country is stressing a global viewpoint, but not everyone can read foreign magazines, and the dispatches of the foreign wire services don't always meet our needs," Norman C. Fu says. "We have to rely on our own news media to offer more thorough, penetrating reports to help us better understand our position internationally."

Helping their fellow citizens to gain a closer understanding of the truth--that's what being an overseas reporter is all about.

[Picture Caption]

Several R.O.C. journalists stationed in Washington gathered in front of the World Press Building for a group portrait. From left to right are Norman C. Fu, Neil Lu, George K Shuang, Ou Chun-lin, Fu I-chieh, Rock Jo-shui Leng, Benedict Hsu, and Louise Ran Costick.

Lunch is an important part of the job for lobbyists, diplomats, and reporters.

The history of the Free World is closely linked to what happens in Washington, D.C.

Home of the State Department, the White House, and Congress, Washington has become a magnet for reporters from around the world.

Lunch is an important part of the job for lobbyists, diplomats, and reporters.

The history of the Free World is closely linked to what happens in Washington, D.C.

Home of the State Department, the White House, and Congress, Washington has become a magnet for reporters from around the world.