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were around 60 million native Cantonese speakers outside Hong Kong,
and the Cantonese audience was more attractive to advertisers. Mr Irwin added that the BBC considered it important to have Cantonese in the range of languages just as World Service radio did. Broadcasting only in Mandarin could be seen as having political overtones. There was an English language teaching aspect also: people would want to learn English from their mother tongue, not through a third language.
3. Lord Derwent said he and Mr Li had had a meeting at the Home Office on the wider issue of broadcasting regulation policy. Deregulation in the UK was commendable, but the policy was not followed in Hong Kong. The Home Office had made the point that in the satellite age regulation could easily be circumvented. In Hutchison's case, for instance, it would be open for them to set up shop in Thailand to broadcast to Hong Kong. Mr Li said that, as Hutchison were a Hong Kong company and deeply committed to the future of Hong Kong, they had no wish to move. But they did not see why the Hong Kong authorities themselves should make things difficult for them. Miss Spencer said this was essentially a matter to raise with the Hong Kong Government. Lord Derwent insisted that the British Government could nevertheless point out the important UK policy interest involved and press for this to be taken into account. Mr Irwin argued that Cantonese was important to the economics of the operation. There was also a World Service radio aspect, since part of the deal would be for the World Service also to be transmitted from the satellite for local rebroadcasting (or direct reception by anyone who had the right dish). The signal would be of FM quality.
4.
Widening the discussion Mr Li handed over some background material on the project and a short note of key points (attached) including the areas in which support was sought from the FCO. Asked for clarification of the third point in Section 4 (help with "international positioning of service and support in event of crisis"), Lord Derwent said that in this respect he hoped that WSTV would be treated no less favourably by HMG than the radio World Service. Miss Spencer said we were disposed to be helpful but, as World Service radio was sponsored and funded directly by the
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