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 | HONG KONG: RETURNING TO THE FOLD January 10, 1997 |
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Return to the Hong Kong forum's top page.
Questions asked
in this forum:
What will happen to religious freedom in Hong Kong after the transfer ? Are the restrictions on China enforceable? What will life be like in Hong Kong in the year 2000? How will the recording of economic data change? Will China phase out the HK dollar and replace it with the Yuan? What will be China's attitude towards the Eurocurrency market ? Has China made any specific commitment to hold free elections to parliament after the transition? What will the U.N. do if it refuses? Viewer comments
Online NewsHour Links
December 17, 1996: As the Chinese defense minister tours the U.S., the NewsHour looks at human rights abuses in China.
November 21, 1996: A NewsHour report on the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation and Asia's economy, the fastest growing, most dynamic region in the world. .
The NewsHour Asia Index.
Britt Towery of Waco, Texas, asks: The question of free access to information is basic. Can it continue in Hong Kong given Beijing's record on such matters? Will it take another generation of China leaders before this need is comprehended? Will C.H. Tung's familiarity with the West help bridge the gap of understanding or misunderstanding? I taught the first TV production courses ever offered at Hong Kong Baptist University 1968-74.
and Simon Marks of Washington, D.C., asks:
What's the latest prognosis for the future of the independent media in Hong Kong beyond the transfer...especially the broadcast media?
Dr. DeGolyer reponds:
Mr. Towery, you wouldn't recognize the institution you once worked at now at all, I'm sure, but your work in tv production has certainly paid off. Baptist University has the leading media education centre in Hong Kong, with a separate School of Communication and departments of video/tv, journalism, and even one on multimedia production.
Media and communications are one of the key elements of Hong Kong's prosperity today, not only in terms of being a base of many journalists who work throughout Asia and more newspapers produced on a daily basis than any other comparably sized community on earth (over 20 newspapers in Chinese and 5 in English for a population of 6.3 million), but also in the financial and trade areas, particularly in banking and currency and stock exchanges.
Hong Kong's stock capitalization is second only to Japan's in Asia (and that may change fairly soon), and it is one of the major financial centres of the world. It holds currency reserves which place it among the top 10 in the world. The GNP of Hong Kong is 20% that of China's, and this is from a population barely half that of Beijing alone. Anyone working in banking and other financial markets knows that instant access to news is absolutely central to such business. A currency trader, for example, cut off from news for even a few minutes, could miss a major event, such as a war or announcement of a rate rise in the U.S. and lose his entire position in seconds. This is certainly not the case in China, where stock exchanges are yet very rudimentary and currency exchange virtually nonexistent.
The gap in understanding of what a modern, globalized, financially based economy like Hong Kong's needs in terms of communication access is very large, and one reason that the promise of one country, two systems, and Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong must become more than slogans. Hong Kong literally cannot exist as it is now if the rules on information flow change. This has been pointed out to Beijing by even one of its own "princelings" (the name for the relatives of highly placed officials in Beijing) running investment firms in Hong Kong, most publically in the case of CITIC.
But: Information is power, and power is a sensitive issue to China.
The real challenge to Beijing is whether it can stand to allow Hong Kong continued free access to information, and hence, power, despite a nearly instinctive desire on the part of cadres (who are really just all powerful bureaucrats, and bureaucrats live and die on information control) to keep information and hence power to themselves.
C. H. Tung, as a shipping magnate and engineer, understands the importance of information, but not quite as deeply as other business people in other areas of businesses such as banking. However, China has placed the Hong Kong SAR laregly into the hands of business people (hence the rising worry about corruption discussed above) and they will be sure to let him know if he steps on their interests. But, in the time it would take them to react, much could be severely damaged.
On the last question, the latest expectation is that the government broadcasters here will lose their quasi-independence (currently our surveys show programs by RTHK are highly regarded by most for their even-handedness and informativeness) and certainly self-censorship is rising in the press. Already up to a quarter of respondents do not think,or do not know, whether there is a fair and representative news outlet in Hong Kong. Certainly China has made clear that it will not tolerate any support for or advocacy of independence for Taiwan, and new laws must be passed outlawing treason, sedition, secession, and subversion--all very troubling and difficult to define concepts. When accusations of sedition collide with freedom of the press or academic freedom, well, even though these are "guaranteed" in the Basic Law, which can be expected to prevail when the ultimate power of appeal of court rulings lies with the National People's Congress in China, a body dedicated to preserving the dictatorship of the proletariat?
The Chinese press will likely stifle itself more than the English press, and the "local" English papers, the South China Morning Post and the Hong Kong Standard, will likely become even more respectful of China and the authorities than they are now. The International Herald Tribune and the Asian Wall Street Journal may continue as critical as they are now, and the journals like the Far Eastern Economic Review and Economist and other international news journals (printed locally with Asian focused editions) will continue to be more open. But, it is certainly not beyond possibilities that a more restrictive regimen like that in Singapore will develop for the media, wherein business information moves freely but anything political or critical gets immediately pounced upon by the government. We may even see real time news feeds restricted to businesses which have demonstrated a need for it and reliability in handling it.
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