This paper examines the dynamic interplay between China's intellectuals and the state power as seen from the text of baogao wenxue, or reportage, in the past three decades of reform and open policy. Our analysis proceeds from a conceptual definition of "fact extrapolation" within the larger analytical framework of Fairclough's social practice of discourse. By tracing the trajectory of the development of reportage along three time lines, we were able to observe legitimacy construction by intellectuals of their own social role in the late 1970s; alliance formation between intellectuals and the state political power, which culminated in a brief tinkering with political system reform in the 1980s; and pursuit of reality criticism and state acceptance by intellectuals on the notion of public interest in the 1990s. One "exemplar reportage" was selected from each of the three historical periods for analysis.