TNAG-2717-FCO40-3923-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1993 — Page 62

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Given the limited amount of English speaking in China our impact in English must also be limited, but we all remember the banner in Tiananmen Square in 1989 saying "Thank You BBC", and even if the amount of listening in English is small, there has been undoubted impact via BBC English teaching programmes, especially "Follow Me", which ran on China Central TV and made its presenter, Kathy Flower, a household name in China. Our hope is that the successor series, "Follow Through", will be as successful. Other series such as "Business English" are also in the pipeline. On the radio side, a major English core curriculum series is now in the planning stage.

The most recent success story in English is WSTV, which is estimated to be available in 4.8 million homes in China via the Star TV network. And, incidentally, 5 half-hour news segments each day are translated simultaneously into Mandarin and available on a separate sound channel on the Star Network. The key constraint on the development of WSTV in China is a recent tightening of rules on the use of satellite dishes, a measure which is clearly designed to limit access to international television. Its effectiveness must, though, be in doubt. Our own contribution to preventing a closing of the door on international television in China is the effort to develop a co-operative relationship with CCTV which, we hope, may also lead to a growth of programme sales in the future.

Besides the issue of access to WSTV, there are two other key concerns relating to the political situation in China. One is the clear intent of the Chinese authorities to stop World Service broadcasting from its Hong Kong SW relay station after 1997. This will inevitably impair our signal into China and makes the rapid development of the alternative site in Thailand a top priority for World Service, despite the current squeeze on the World Service capital budget. The second concern is for our position as a newsgatherer in China. We have two bi-media correspondents currently in Beijing but the authorities have so far refused our application for a resident TV reporter and cameraman, Given the importance of China and the growth of World Service radio and TV in Asia, the strengthening of BBC newsgathering in China is a top priority.