Urgent Business: Hong Kong, Freedom of Expression and 1997
contacts with the magazine, though Contemporary journalists are said to retain reliable inside sources willing to provide information. According to one Contemporary staffer, Beijing's anger at continued revelations of its internal policies and decisions has led to the magazine being placed under surveillance by Chinese intelligence in an effort to establish sources. Xinhua has even resorted to disinformation to try and discredit the magazine's reputation for reliability," though ironically this is said to have strengthened its sourcing.
Pressure has also been applied to individual journalists and contributors at the five publications. Some reportedly have been warned that China is paying close attention to their criticisms of the Communist Party, intimating that there may be reprisals in the future. Many of the journalists at these publications are likely to be under some form of monitoring and surveillance.
Against the subtle background of monitoring and surveillance, Xinhua News Agency is again actively feeding stories, arranging access for favoured organizations or journalists, providing free or subsidized trips to the mainland, meals with officials and, of course, gifts. Sources say particularly strong emphasis is being placed on the key second category, the large group of politically neutral organizations that stand to be won over by the news agency's united front tactics.
Xinhua News Agency's revised strategy is bringing some limited success in rebuilding media coverage. Though the media still express critical views of China's leadership, particularly as they report on the power struggles in Beijing, often these are perceptibly subdued particularly in comparison to the months after June 1989. Criticisms now concern only the details of the progress of the transition rather than a questioning of the basis of the handover itself or attacks on the political veracity or credibility of leaders. China has contained the fall-out from 1989, and there has been a partial reconstruction of the self-restraint of the 1980s.
There are important differences, however. Today's increasing self-censorship is not a manifestation of goodwill, as it mostly was during the optimism of the pre-1989 reform years. Rather it is one which stands between the fear and disillusionment of 1989 and the inevitable timetable of 1997.
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A June 1990 report in Contemporary, based on leaked information regarding the activities in Hong Kong of offspring of senior Chinese leaders, proved to be false.
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