Business as usual for Hong Kong?

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Nov 15, 1996 by Caitlin Kelly

William Holstein, a Hong Kong bureau chief from 1979 to 1981 and until last month the editor of Business Week's Asian edition, recently visited Hong Kong with a four-member delegation of editors from the Manhattan-based Overseas Press Club. He, too, came away with few fears for Western English-language journalists.

"At the moment, there's nothing terribly ominous on the horizon. The key issue for us is the question of visas and credentials." If China's official news agency, Xinhua - whose name, Holstein points out darkly, means "new tongue" - begins determining who is considered a legitimate journalist, things could change for the worse. "They're pretty insensitive to the burning issues of Western press freedom. If they're involved in the issuing of press credentials, that would be a serious blow," Holstein says.

Every editor and publisher Folio: interviewed agreed that Hong Kong colleagues who are most concerned about the hand-over - and who should be - are Chinese-language journalists. Holstein names Ming Pao and The Hong Kong Economic Journal as the two most independent-minded Chinese-language newspapers. "They're nervous. They feel vulnerable not so much to a formal censorship board, but to the fact that the Communist Chinese will have more economic clout. To survive economically, they'll have to play the game," Holstein says.

Interestingly, foreign journalists setting up in Hong Kong have increased in number in recent years, although they are working mostly in television and radio, and in news. In January 1990, there were 16 foreign news agencies in Hong Kong - today there are 23; in 1990, there were 26 foreign television/radio organizations - today 40. There are 19 foreign magazines compared with 18 in 1990. (The highest recent figure was 21 in 1994). The number of foreign correspondents based there was about 350 in July 1996, up from 300 the year before.

That said, it's an uneasy peace now. Even David K.P. Tsui, director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Manhattan, concedes that nothing is sacred, especially press freedom. "Hong Kong is an unknown quantity after 1997," he admits.

Tsui thinks things aren't likely to change much for editors and publishers, for several reasons. "The eyes of the world will be on Hong Kong. The Chinese government is very aware of this." The city-state is the eighth-largest trading center in the world and the third-largest financial center. Beijing messes with this golden goose at its peril, he says. Although there is no press freedom in China, Tsui says there will be in a Chinese-ruled Hong Kong because not to do so is impractical." China has accepted that Hong Kong will be different from China. When you have accepted this, you accept that certain aspects of life will also be different. China is very pragmatic in its politics. It is to China's own advantage to practice a different system," he says.

The three largest investors in China's economy are, in order, Hong Kong, Japan and. the United States. The Chinese signed the Joint Declaration because "there's something in it for them," Tsui says.