Quest says he means what he says

CNN anchor believes Sino-US trade relationship will be in the spotlight during presidential election

Richard Quest, the idiosyncratic CNN anchor, insists there is nothing fake about his larger-than-life on-screen personality.

"Oh yes, absolutely. You couldn't do it an hour a day, five nights a week and 260 shows a year, if it wasn't the real you," he says.

"It might be an exaggerated version but I am not playing a part. The viewer would eventually see through you as being a fraud."

The 54-year-old was in China filming for Business Traveller and presenting Quest Means Business live from Beijing aiming to get a new perspective on the world's second-largest economy since its relations with the United States are likely to continue to be a key issue in the US election.

"Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are going to have to address the issue of the trade relationship with China, if, for no other reason, Mr Trump has already put it on the table.

"It is a frighteningly complicated subject but still lends itself easily to short hyperbolic phrases. Mr Trump shouts that China is raping the US and trade (between the two countries) has been disastrous and all one-sided. I'm not sure, you know, that Boeing or GE and the other US companies that do business in China would all necessarily agree."

Quest believes there are parallels between the US' current relationship with China and that with Japan more than two decades ago.

"We saw it with Ross Perot (independent presidential candidate in 1992) and Japan in the 1990s. It was when Japan was buying all the car companies. So we have seen it all before."

Quest, who is also CNN's aviation correspondent, is perhaps best known in China for his coverage of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

The aircraft went missing in March 2014 and had on board 12 crew and 227 passengers, of which 152 were Chinese citizens. He has reently published a book, The Vanishing of Flight MH370: The True Story of the Hunt for the Missing Malaysian Plane.

He believes the key to finding the aircraft is in being able to further analyze the data, rather than just constantly searching the ocean.

"The problem is where do you look? You can't just keep extending the zone. It is too big. Until you can (further) mine that Inmarsat (the British satellite telecommunications company) data, all those satellite handshakes, you might as well suspend the search until there is more accurate information as to where it could be to go back out again."

Quest does not believe in the theory that the captain of the plane, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, committed suicide by deliberately crashing the plane.

"There is no evidence. He had been with Malaysia Airlines for 25 years and for 15 years as captain. In all other previous cases of suicide, the pilots crashed the plane immediately. They haven't taken it on a long run down to the southern Indian Ocean for seven hours."

Quest believes the most likely scenario is that the pilots and everyone on board became unconscious as a result of some catastrophic technical or mechanical failure.

"Yes, the ghost plane scenario. Look, I agree it can be quite difficult to come up with that scenario but I think it is the most likely."

Quest was born in Liverpool and partly brought up in Leeds, where he also studied law at university. He believes his north England background occasionally informs his journalism.

"It comes out when I am interviewing some pompous businessman, who, you know, is trying to tell me that black is white and then my northern accent will come out and I will say something northern like, 'where there's muck, there's brass'. I think coming from the north and from Liverpool perhaps, in particular, does slightly ground me a bit more."

He began his a career as a trainee journalist with the BBC in 1985 before moving to New York to be North America correspondent, where he established himself as a high profile broadcaster.

He moved to CNN in 2001 and is a regular presence on the network. He divides his time now between homes in New York and London.

"I go between the cities maybe once or twice a month. My mother, who is 86, and my sisters live in London. I like living between the two places. I know people are going to think this sounds like those horrible twee Sunday Times lifestyle profiles. They are going to think what has it to do with the price of fish in Scunthorpe," he says, laughing.

One of Quest's reasons for the China visit this time was to report on the business travel market. China overtook the US as the world's largest business travel market last year, according to the Global Business Travel Association. The sector was worth $291.2 billion in China, compared with $290.2 billion in the US.

He says he is impressed with the quality on offer from both Chinese airlines and hotel providers.

"I took a couple of domestic flights and they were as good as any I have taken in the United States. I went economy with Air China from Beijing to Xi'an, a short hop of only two-and-half hours and the plane was full. Admittedly, the food offering was a little unusual but it was no worse than what I get back of the bus on British Airways.

"I think there is a real recognition in China at all levels that if you are going to develop a business and leisure travel market, there needs to be a great deal of investment in infrastructure, including airports."

Quest made his first visit to China 10 years ago but has made a number of trips since.

"I am a relative newbie in China. I find the place fascinating, absolutely fascinating, particularly the contradictions. Frankly, there is more capitalism in Beijing than you are likely to find on Wall Street."

He remains concerned about the global economy, and speaking before Britain voted to leave the European Union, said: "We are certainly out of the Great Recession but I think we are in a much more difficult area. We are into a long hard slow trudge. The problem with the economic crisis was that the banks were involved. The very mechanism by which economies run was damaged.

"It wasn't the spark plugs, running out of petrol or the carburetor getting clogged. This was the crankshaft and the big end and the whole lot going. That is why it is much more difficult."

andrewmoody@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 07/02/2016 page32)