"While trying to tell a complete story within the 60-second format, much of the backstory has to be implied or set up off-camera, " the spokesman said in an e-mail.

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Hu set off for downtown Beijing, working the phone and e-mailing from the back seat of a car, directing her staff to rent a satellite phone and get a crew to Sichuan.

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The intercepted e-mails between the two, officials said, had not not set off alarm bells.

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