Fri, Jan 21, 2000 page13

• Renamed Xinhua becomes a new force in Hong Kong's politics

  Democracy activists are worried that the ex-news agency, now called the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government, is eroding the Special Administrative Region's much-vaunted autonomy under the `one country, two systems' plan

  • By Cheryl Lai
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  On Sept. 27 1993, the Chinese government arrested a former colleague of mine, Xi Yang (席揚), at the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao (明報). Xi, who was born in Beijing, was accused of "disclosing national secrets." After his arrest, colleagues in Hong Kong could do nothing more than tie yellow ribbons on the door of the Hong Kong Branch of the Xinhua News Agency (新華社香港分社) on the 27th of every month as a reminder to this event.

  The importance of the Xinhua News Agency is not related to its journalism, but to its political role in Hong Kong.

  Everybody knows all too well that Xinhua was not only a news agency in Hong Kong, but actually served as the China's de facto embassy, or more precisely, the underground government and local headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party, both before and after 1997.

  Xinhua had been operating under a veil of secrecy for more than 52 years in Hong Kong. It was well known that the Chinese leadership in 1949 authorized the branch to serve as its contact with the British colonial government in the absence of formal relations. In fact, the Xinhua office had been run by its first director, Qiao Guanhua (喬冠華) from May 1, 1947 as a branch of Chinese Communist Party.

  Xu Jiatun (許家屯), a former director of Xinhua (1983-1990) fled to the US from Hong Kong and published his memoirs in 1993. His recollections confirmed that all the Xinhua directors were concurrently head of the local Communist Party cell.

  It is only now that Beijing has decided to change the office's name to represent its longstanding status as a political organ -- it is now called the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government (中央人民政府駐香港特別行政區聯絡辦公室). Now that Macau has also been returned to China, the name of Xinhua's branch in the former Portuguese colony has also been changed. The name changes took place on the same day.

  At the renaming ceremony Jiang Enzhu (姜恩柱), the first head of the new Liaison Office, said, "It is quite natural for the Central People's Government to have a representative organ in Hong Kong. And it will now turn a new page."

  This statement sounds reasonable enough. But why bother changing the name at all, and why now?

  According to news reports, an anonymous senior government official confirmed the widely acknowledged "secret" that the several hundred Xinhua employees in Hong Kong are Chinese government officials. Another 80 to 90 people actually do work as journalists for Xinhua in a separate editorial office, he clarified.

  That is what we journalists used to refer to "Big Xinhua" (大新華) and "Small Xinhua" (小新華). Now Big Xinhua has changed its name to the Liaison Office, while Small Xinhua retains the old name.

  Does this mean we can expect the Xinhua News Agency in Hong Kong to be more journalistically professional in the future? If so, would its "political role" be less than that of the other branches around the world, thus fulfilling the promise of "one country, two systems (一國兩制)?"

  The answers to both questions are "no" and "no."

  But the renaming does have an important political point. It is an announcement that Hong Kong and Macau are both now territories belonging to China and therefore Xinhua no longer needs to serve a diplomatic role.

  At best, the change can be seen as a step toward "democracy with Chinese characteristics." Instead of a single "party-state-media" entity (黨國媒不分), two separate organs now exit in Hong Kong: a "party-state" entity and a "party-media" entity.

  But what the name change proves above all else, is that Beijing will make decisions directly without any reference to its new territories.

  Only when a Hong Kong newspaper broke the news on Jan. 15 did the people -- including officials -- in Hong Kong and Macau know that the name of Xinhua was going to change.

  Hong Kong's National Peoples's Congress local deputy (港區全國人民大會代表) and president of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai (范徐麗泰), said Xinhua only notified NPC deputies of the name change on the morning of Jan. 17, one day before the change went into effect.

  In fact, Tung Chee-hua (董建華), the Chief Executive of Hong Kong SAR, was warned that Xinhua's renaming as a Liaison Office would legitimize it as a second power base. Tung brushed off this concern, saying the office's responsibilities "do not impinge on Hong Kong's autonomy."

  And just what are the Liaison Office's responsibilities? According to a Xinhua dispatch, the office will:

  * liaise with the office of the commissioner of the Foreign Affairs Ministry and with the Hong Kong Garrison;

  * liaise with and help PRC authorities supervise China-funded organizations;

  * liaise with members of all the professions in the SAR, foster cross-border exchanges and reflect the views of Hong Kong people to the PRC government;

  * deal with affairs related to Taiwan; and

  * handle "central government tasks."

  Though, for the most part, the central Chinese government has maintained a hands-off policy in dealing with the territory over the past two-and-a-half years, many critics said that this is because Tung has "decided" everything according to the will of Beijing.

  It is hardly surprising that Tung Chee-hua, a successful and well-known businessman but a hesitant politician, has been accused of being a "yes-man" to Beijing. Local officials have complained that he never discussed with them whether Hong Kong should apply to be host of the next Asian Games. His decision to do so was to create a platform for China's athletes. This might also answer the question why Tung didn't think the Liaison Office's responsibilities will "impinge on Hong Kong's autonomy" -- there isn't much left to impinge on.

  In an old joke about Mao Zedong (毛澤東), the late strongman complained that his telephone bill to God was much more expensive than the Pope's, to which the Pope replied:"of course, my calls are local and yours are long distance." The renaming of Xinhua will undoubtedly save a lot of money for Tung Chee-hua.

  Cheryl Lai (賴秀如) is a senior editor at the Taipei Times.
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