TNAG-0964-FCO40-1183-Air-services-between-the-UK-and-Hong-Kong-1980 — Page 23

Annex A

Radio and Press Reaction : Summary

(a) Radio: "Talkabout", a daily phone-in programme in

Cantonese, devoted an entire 2 hours one day to the issue;

every single caller criticised the CAA decision.

Typical

comments included: "exploitation", "discrimination", "greed",

"second-rate citizenship", "suppression", "Britain's sell-out".

"Open Line" - a similar programme in English over the period

S

of a week broadcast over 100 calls of which 80 were anti, 8 were

pro the decision, and the rest were neutral. Both programmes

demonstrated cynical disbelief at the justification given for

the decision, ascribing it to commercial exploitation of colonial

Hong Kong by a self-interested British Government. There were

relatively few direct criticisms of BCAL as such it was the

exclusion of CPA that was the cause of the outrage, together

with distrust of the DC10 as a safe aeroplane.

(b)

G

Newspapers: Editorials in 16 Chinese and 4 English daily papers (with a combined circulation of over 1 million) universally

condemned the decision, as did other articles. These are all

attached. Typical comments were:

Kung Sheung Daily News: "In the eyes of the British people, Hong Kong is only a hen that lays golden eggs. As long as it continues to lay eggs, other matters are not important the people of Hong Kong have expressed resentment: the general feeling is that the CAA is still taking a colonial attitude towards Hong Kong and it would protect Britain's commercial

interests at the expense of Hong Kong

Obviously the

Authority has not considered the question of trade reciprocity

11

South China Morning Post: "The decision

will be widely

and rightly resented in Hong Kong ..... the decision smacks

of old-fashioned protectionism of the worst kind

London

has displayed a shameless abuse of imperial privilege by shutting out the local airline and dividing the route between

two British/.....