General
Hong Kong Government Office, Brussels
PRESS REVIEW - NOVEMBER 1987
HKB CU/2
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16 DECG1887
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During the month of November, the European press tended to concentrate on the "social" issues of life in Hong Kong. The "brain drain" and residents' views of the Chinese "takeover" were among the main topics treated.
In an article in the Madrid independent daily El Pais, Marilo Ruiz de Elvira covers the background to the Chinese handover including interviews with several Hong Kong residents on their rather resigned view of the future. Two Portuguese papers carry small articles on direct elections. Patrick Sabatier, Hong Kong correspondent for Libération writing in Tempo, Lisbon based independent right wing weekly, on VRS and related topics, notes the irony of the "Boat People" fleeing to Hong Kong compared to what he terms the "Yacht People" who are planning to leave the territory with Mauritius, Belise or Costa Rican passports.
A
Marco Torelli, writing in "Il Secolo d'Italia", a Rome-based paper, emphasises the evident wealth of Hong Kong and mentions the "brain-drain". feature in Stampa Sera, Turin, the widely-read evening paper, is illustrated by two contrasting photos, one of capitalist high rises and one of the poorer quarters. There are also interviews with residents on the "brain-drain" etc. An article by Bob Maes in the popular Belgian daily Het Laatste Nieuws entitled "The Skyline of Success", gives a positive but somewhat cautious picture of the territory and quotes a Hong Kong tourist courier "Half a century is a long time. China can change (in that time)". The author asks if
this is perhaps "forced optimism".
Two German papers, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich and Tagesspiegel, Berlin, quote AP reports on the end of the eighth round of Sino-British negotiations on the future of Hong Kong. The same article appears in the Luxembourg paper, Letzeburger Journal.
In a large feature article on Hong Kong entitled "Hong Kong in Top Gear", the liberal NRC/Handelsblad, Rotterdam, deals at length with economic, trade and welfare issues. The author, who is not named, gives GIS and
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