TNAG-2791-FCO40-4030-Relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-China.-With-maps-1993 — Page 4

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CONFIDENTIAL

FM HONG KONG

TO ROUTINE FCO

TELNO 1747

OF 170335Z NOVEMBER 1993

INFO ROUTINE PEKING

CONFIDENTIAL

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Peking's Propaganda Department

بیده

17/11

12/11

HKC 0201

1. NO. 1993

SARY

13

061703

MDLIAN 0525

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It became apparent last winter that the PRC's Propaganda Department had embarked on an intensive programme aimed at making friends and influencing people in the Hong Kong press and media. An early target of this charm-pressure offensive was Sally AW of the Sing Tao group. She was feted by the Propaganda Department Last December and her newspapers (the Sing Tao Daily, the Sing Tao Evening News and the Hong Kong Standard) have since been more understanding of the PRC's position on political issues.

2. Most of the proprietors and senior editors of our Chinese Language newspapers have received invitations to visit Peking for briefings. Most have accepted. The Propaganda Department's success with Sing Tao was not repeated in the case of the Oriental press Group (which publishes our three biggest selling papers) but they do seem to have made considerable headway with many of the others.

3.

The pattern is the same in all cases. Proprietors, editors or senior journalists receive an invitation to travel to Peking (at their own expense) for a familiarisation visit. They are escorted by a minder from the local branch of the NCNA and in Peking they are given briefings on a wide range of issues i.e. political development in Hong Kong, MFN, the ''US conspiracy against China'', Taiwan, the Chinese application to rejoin the GATT and domestic economic issues. If the visitor is sufficiently senior, they get to meet Ding Wang-en, the head of the Propaganda Department.

4.

It seems that the Department has recently focused its attention on the senior staff of our two free-to-air television stations, TVB and ATV. All of the senior editorial staff of both stations have visited the Propaganda Department in the past six weeks and according to the front line reporters, the briefings are already having an effect on news reporting. They claim that there has been a change in the way news assignments are made, that China stories are receiving a soft or uncritical treatment and that the links

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