The Correspondent, June 1997 by The Foreign Correspondents' Club, Hong Kong

Signedand sealed: A portfolio

flong Kong treaties

Handover happenings Chris Patten personally Hong Kong 'On the Wall'

In Germany, we chase the police. THE CORRDSPONIIDNT Jl¡fle 1997

FCC member anel Gouemor

Hong Kong, Chrß Patten, asks tbe uorld's press nol to forget tbe ten ítory afier tbe Handouer

THE FORJSIGN

CORRESPONDENTS' CLIJB 2 Lower Albe¡t Road, Hong Kong Telephone: 2521 157 I Fax: 2868 4O92 Elnail: fcc@fcchk.org

President

FüstVlce Second Vice

An exbibitir¡n

o.f tbe

Ilong Kong

treLtties by Pat Elliott Shircore

Keith Richburg Diane Stomtont

PGident-

Presid€nt- Karin Malmströnì

Corespond€nt Member Govemors

A moment in history' an ex b ibition of pb o t ograp ofHong Kong by FCC

Andrew Higgins, Robin Lynarr, Jonathan Mirsky, Christopher Slaughter, Simon Twiston Davies, Hubert van Es, Sleplìen V¡nes, Hans Vriens.

pbotojournølists

Journallst Member GovernoË Andrew Lynch, Fancis Morriarty

Assæiate Meûber Gov€moß William H. AresonJr.,John CorbettJr Mike Smith,Julian Valsh

Professlonal C.ommitt€e Conueno r: Kettll Richbulg

Multi-media Commlttee Cot t uø

r: Dia ne

Ìo

A stunning collection of black and wbite images of Cbina by Iiu Heung Sbing

ntont

Flnmce Coñmttte€ Con Le no r: W

illi^m H.,Areson

Jr-

Membership Commtttec

Con uen or: }{uber¡. v ao Es

Treæ u re r: Julian \l tlsh F & B and Entertaimnt Commlttæ Conuenor: KaIiî Mal mstr öm

pedals which pivot away on impact,

in our archives. serious than

sounds.

1959, we undertook our

Since 19ó9, thanks to the

first crash test. And we still conduct

co-operation of the German police, our

over one hundred such tests every year.

engineers have been travelling to major

Painstakingl¡ we compile all

back to the

road accidents in which a Mercedes-

the evidence and feed

Benz has been involved.

engineers who are working on the next

Toda¡ we haYe the benefit

Wall Commlttee Freedom of the Prus Commlttee

rather than crush the delicate bones

Corr ue nor':

rlncis Moriarty

design patents are not enforced,

that others can also benefit

from

accident research behind us.

night affair.

safety

is a day and

ln Analysis teams

will study the causes

1949, we perfected the

safety car door which neither pops

our cars are designed by accident.

One team has even received

1951, we patented the

rigid passenger car cell, crumple 2ones.

stored

And,

residLe¡t

Personall¡z

speaking

l\ded-ia Ìlzlatters

PRODUCITON Asiapix Print Sewices

9544 Fax:

257 5

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colf Dirzersions l)ivert alerr!

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E-mail: asiapix@hk linkage.net

l\zferrrbers at la-rge

Carlsberg Media Classic

"I am not a politician"

8600

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Mission to Macau

Print the negs

t4-

cooking?

'Hong Kong on the wall'

34-

Advance Hong Kong!

Tlìe Foreign C¡respondenrs' Club of Hong Kong

ADVERTISING ENQIJIRIES Terry Duckham/Asiapix Telephone: 2572 9544 Fax: 2575 860O

first

Frorrr ttre /\

The Foreign Correspondents' Cìub.

257 2

25-

Hangover 1991

Ted's F'olly

lmpress Offset Prìntjng Factory Linited

40'-

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"Signed ancl sealed"

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by energy absorbing front and rear

additional medical training.

1()_

Opinions expressed by writers in

'lel:

Is China playing fair'?

Not just a sound bite

Conupondenrâre not necessarily those of

PRINTER

And their effects.

of unique accident data

In fact, yóu might even say

open nor jams shut on impact.

of up to 1ó0 accidents.

cases

first

Kees Metselaâr

The

the President

Purely'Personal

Interesting times

Terry Duckham, Robin Lynam, Hubert van Es Paul Bayfield, Stephen Vines, Andrew Lynch

Tbe Conesponden is publ¡shed rnonthly

results are well worth the effort.

Publlcatlors commlttæ Con ue no r: S:noî Twiston Davies

So, as you can see, our

Frorn in politics

EDITORIAL OFFICE Jeff Heselwood, Editor Telephone: 2851 0493 Fax:2815 2530 E-ma il: jhc@netvigator conr Assistânt Editori Melinda Persson

Mercedes-Benz developments.

pursuit

2L-

Eleven months is a long time

The Correspondent

of more than 25 years of experience in

Lelfers

FCC General Manager Roben Sanclers

of your feet.

Mercedes-Benz models.

Conueilor: Bob Davis

@ 1997 The Foreign Correspondenrs' Club olHong Kong

Cover Illustration by Pat Eliott Shircore

Mercedes-Benz in

1982, we

developed Engineered to move the human spirit June Tf,D

GORRXSPOil¡IDI|T

7ry

.--#-

To the editor

From Mr Albert E. Kaff work, and all of you who edited and published this book should be justly

back fond memories. It contains a truly great and memorable collection of pictures, including a 1948 shot of

illustrated, Eyewitness is a good read. Every article and photo brought back

Jack Birns and me in Manchuria the day before it fell to the Communists. Thanks so much.

Eltewitness on Asia ís a magnificent

proud. Beautifuliy and lavishly

memories. Your book will live for generations as an importantmonumentto the Club,

its members and the history they covered.

Congratulations to all on creating a great and important book.

From Mr Roy Rowan I've finally had a chance to read the wonderful FCC book. Sure brings

member decided he or she was going to get wet on the way home without the help of my umbrella. Can we please bring back the

lockable umbrella stand?

From Ms Elaine Scullion Isn't it sad, not to say pathetic, that

members cannot leave unattended umbrellas in the Ciub lobby for a couple of hours and expect them still to be lhere on their way out? I have lost two distinctly patterned umbrellas (so no-one could have mistaken them for their own) over a 1

O-day

ST(lLICHNAYA Letters to tbe editor øre aluays win yourself a bottle welcome of Stolicbnayafor øn original or witty letter- but we resetae tbe

rigbt to editfor clørity orfor reasons ofspace.

period because some dishonest

THE FCC BOOK 1997. EYEWITNESS ON ASIA - UP TO 1997 AND BEYOND . 2,48 PAGES .614 IMAGES . A COLLECTORS" ITEM

.¡

COPIES AVÀ|LABLE FROM THE FRONT DESK AT HK$36S / US$48 OR CALL 25211511 / FAX 28684092

Eleven months is a long time in

politics 'f{nr

.oo

combination of Entertainment and F&B

potential glitches in the accreditation

though it has been at least ten. In fact, because of last year's tied election and the run-off, I only spent 11 months as president. I can't say it has been fun, lrut it l-ras been memorable.

Committees under Karin Malmström and RobinLynam has broughtus back fromthe darkdays of the renovation. The NewYear's Eve parlywas the best I can remember. Dinner Theatre and concert nights have been sell outs as

situation for the Handover. He has also helped me in terms of having to make public statements onbehalfofthe Club. In addition, last year's Human Rights Press Awards were a g(eat success. I know that this year's awards are going to be even better. Thank you Francis.

\X/hen tlre term

of the

1.996-1997

board began, the Club was literally in a shambles. The renovations were in

full swing. Nerves were a bit frayed with everyone crammed together in the pool bar, and a limited menu being serwed. \Øhat a transformation the last yearhas brought. \Øhile I am often the one to receive the compliments for the current high quality of the Club, it is by

no means solely a result of my efforts. There are many people who deserve thanks. Normally, the president

to convene the

required

Professional

Committee, but I felt my time could be

better spent on other matters, while allowing those with more experience af,

arrangingprofessional events to take

the lead. Michael Mackey did an extraordinary job booking speakers and getting the right mix of information

and controversy. The array of guest

have the Quiz Nights and Bridge Nights under the guidance of \ùØendy

Richardson. More are planned for the

Handover. The recent arrival of executive chef Stephen \X/arren has brought the level of cuisine up to what members have a right to expect. A new menu has been

introduced in the Main Bar and the new Main Dining Room menu will be ready inJuly. Thankyou Karin, Robin and Stephen. The Multi media Committee under Kees Metselaar's direction has turned the home page into a useful research tool and source of information about

Club events. The work room is functioning better than ever. The Macintosh computer is about to get a power boost. The improved multifaxing system has reduced our operating costs. The committee has

speakers ranged from His All Holiness

just prepared a questionnaire, which will be going out soon. This will allow

Bartholomew I, The Patriarch of the

those who wish to receive Clttb

Orthodox Church, to Commander British Forces, Major General Brian Dutton, to Han Dong Fang. Certainly, the most moving speaker was Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Jose Ramos Horta speaking on the struggle in East Timor. Thank you Michael. The Club has a large role to play in the social lives of its members and the

announcements by e-mail to make theirwishes known, whichwill further reduce costs. Thank you Kees.

The Freedom of the

Press

Committee under Francis Moriatty has continued to represent the Club's views has abreast me been a great help in keeping

on this important issue. Francis

the concerns of local Press and

County, California,

county

Memorandum and Articles of

magazine looks bettel and is more relevant to the members' interests. It may soon even be self-supporting. Thank you, Paul and Terry. The addition of Julian \Øalsh as treasurer and convenor ofthe Finance Committee has been one of the most significant changes of the last year. Through Julian's direction, along with the gentlemen with large hat sizes who make up the finance committee,

government. Most recently Caroline

Association. This was pushed aside in favour of more pressing tasks. For this

the club has undertaken

policywhich

believe will ensure our long term existence. I know that the rise in subscription fees has been difficult to swallow, but a year from now I am quite certain that this decision will have been proved correct. I think it is

it only been ayear't From ru1

I Ipoint of view, it seems as

Duckham taking on these tasks, the

The walls were a source of controversy this past year. \X/all

important to note thatJulian drew more votes than any governor in the last election. Thank you, Julian.

'Síithoutthe hardwork and loyalty

of our staff none of

these

accomplishments would have been possible. Assistant general manager Doris Yiu and her front office staff were invaluable to me. Restaurants

month completes 25 years of continuous service to the Club,

as convenor of the Membership

housekeeping department and made the Club shine as it never has before. My thanks to all the staff.

new members followed proper

Jenkins. Our condolences to their families. Theywill be missedbutnever forgotten. The high point of the year for me was the celebration of Clare Hollingworth's 85th birthday. Friends sent greetings from all over the wodd, which made my job as host easy. I was

paticularþ pleased to meet and have the opportunityto thankLordMaclehose to whom the Club owes so much.

I don't Y/ant to paint

a true second home to its members. Sammy Cheung and his accomplished team of barmen kept the drinks fl owing and the FCC MainBar remains the best

totally rosy

picture. There were some failures. One of the most important issues the Club had to face was the rewriting of the

I apologise to the membership. However, I know that the incoming president regards this as a priority matter. It is my hope that when the new articles are written that all categories of member will be able to vote for all offices. 'SØhile I don't advocate a structural change in the Board of Governors, I do believe that the time has come for an associate's

vote to have equal weight of

hope that news organisations would benefit oftheir employees being members of the FCC. However, I am not so naive to believe that in these days of 'downsizing', what's good for see the

employees would receive much

The Foreign Coffespondents' Club, Hong Kong Board of Governors, 1997-98 President Keith Richburg ('Wasbington Post)

in the world. Sam Bo managed the

Committee, convened by Ronnie Ling, has seen us through difficult times. Of particular note is the work of committee member David Higgins, who has overseen the revitalisation of the Health Corner. Thank you, David and Ronnie.

praise. Throughout the year, Bob has

put up with my daily lunchtime conferences, during which I voiced members' complaints, suggestions

and more frequently now, their

First Vice President Diane Stormont (Reuters)

Second Vice President Karin Malmström (Mercedes-Benz Cbina Ltd)

Correspondent Member Governors Andrew Higgins (The Guørdian)

Simon Twiston-Davies

Jonathan Mirsky (The Times) Robin Lynam

Hubert van Es

(Freela,nce)

(Freelance) Stephen Vines

(Freelønce)

(The Independent)

Christopher Slaughter

Hans Vriens (Het Algemeen Dagblad)

(Asia Business Neu,¡s)

been a valued friend and advisor. Thank you, Bob.

Some

of our members have

achieved great things in the past year. Former board member Pete Engardio .Week of Business was awarded the Overseas Press Club awardforhis story 'Asia: Time for a Reality Check'. Absent

memberJim Mulvaney of the Orange County Register won the Pu,Iilzer P rize for his team's investigative report into the financial scandal of the Orange

Journalist Member Governors Andrew Lynch (S

CMP/As ian New sp ap er F o cus)

Francis Moriafiy (RTHK)

Associate Member Governors \Øilliam H, AresonJr (Areson t Compøny) John F. CorbettJr (US Gouernment)

correspondent's. The other thorny issue we failed to address is how to make the Club more accessible to coffespondents who are working on a local hire basis. I would

FCC

Of course, I can't neglect to thank general manager Bob Sanders, who

The Publications Committee,

members passed away, namely Frank Hydes, Charlie Smith, and Graham

maintained the high level of friendly and efficient service-which makes the

application procedures. I am happy to report that membership is up. Not to be forgotten is the work of Sarah Chan, our membership secretary. Thank you, Hugh and Sarah. During the past year the House

convened by Paul Bayfield, has been responsible for the production of TIte Correspondezt During the past year, tl:.e magazine has gone through a transition not only of content but of production and advertising. \Xrith Terry

There have been some sad moments this year, Some long time

manager Gilbert Cheng, who this

Committee convenor Bob Davis took the lead in resolving this touchy issue. \øith the recent acquisition of the Black \X/atch Kilt picture, the balance of T&A has finallybeen struck and comingphoto exhibitions will only serve to strengthen our reputation as the finest press club in the wodd. Thank you, Bob. As always, HughvanEshas served Committee and seen to it that potential

Ptrel of Liberation and Le Point won the highest honour a French journalist can receive, Le Prix Albert Londres, for her coverage of China(See page 6).

Mike Smith (Ex-IBM General Manager) Julian'ùØalsh Ç

\Vølsb

Jtne 7997 THD

Co, Ltd)

CORRESPONIIDI{T

consideration. Therefole, I believe it is the long term interest and responsibility of the Club to find a way to bring local hire correspondents and

Le Prix Albert Londres 97

journaÌists into our ranks.

I would like to lhank Governor Chris Pattenforhis support of the FCC.

He has consistently made himself available at ifirportant Club functions. On drese occasions I have marveled at his wit and charn'r. I wish him well in

what ever challenge his future may hold. My hope is that the in-coming Chief Executive will recognise the importance of the FCC in Hong Kong and will feel as comfortable as Chris Patten did among its members. Ihope duringmytime as plesident

have done what

believe is the

principal job of the president , which is

J L/

c I'rix Albert Londres is awarded every year for Lhe best jor rna I istic r

work in the French language. This year the award has gone to FCC member Caroline Puel, the corresponde nt for Libération and Le Point tn Beijing. 1963 and has a degree in political science, began her career as a press

attachê at the French Embassy in Beijing before becoming â reporter and eventually Asia editor for Radio France International (RFI). She joined

the daily Libération in 7992, for which she covered stories in

Keith

Afghanistan, Pakistan, Thailand and China befole taking chalge of the

Richbulg shales this view.

Recently, many rnembers have taken the trouble to compliment me

on the way I handled the fob of

president. Most gratifying have been those who confessed that they didn't vote for me because they didn't think I had it in me. To have them tell me they think I did an excellent job is the best compliment of all. Of course there

will nevel be convinced, br,rt they can take comfort in knowing are those who

that my term is

over.

I¡q

By I(eith Richburg

Caroline Puel, who was boln in

to listen to the concerns of the members and whenever possible to act on them.

I know that my successor

Interesting times

Hong Kong bureau.

J've

heard repeated too many times already this year the old Chinese curse about living in interesting times.

Unfortunately, even while suffering from overuse, the phrase does rather neatly sum up the current year, the most pivotai for Hong Kong in the iast 150 years.

1995 she

opened the Beijing bureau in

This transition year will be

especially fascinating to watch because

Caroline Puel

collaboration with the French weekly Le Point. In January 1997 she reopened the Hong Kong bureau and

prize was created to honour the

became burear-r chief

memory of Albert Londres, who was

both

bureaux.

the most admired French war

Le Prix Albert Londres, which is in its 59th year, carries a cash prize of 10,000FF. It is given to two journalists under 40 years old, who work in the

correspondent of his generation. He

print and audiovisual mediums. The

was lost in the shipwreck of the French

packet boat 'Georges Philippar', which sank in the Red Sea 16 May 1.932.

Hong Kong is falling under the international media microscope. Thousands

of correspondents

and

camera crews are expected to descend

on these 1070 square kilometers to record what will- no doubt be as one of the biggest news events since the SouthAfrican elections of 1994. At the same time, the foreign media itself is under increasing scrutiny. Lately, the foreign correspondents

remembered

\íhat we don't do is act

cheerleaders. It's not our role to play up Hong Kong as a safe place to invest, or as a greattourist destination although it is both. 'W'e are not

-here as'advocates of any view or position. And, contrary to another popular misconception, we don't write stories in an attempt to "sell papers" or make profits for our

xze dorr't do is act as cl-reerleaders. It's rìot or-rr role to play up Hong I(ong as a safe 1>lace to irnzest

rJØkrat

based here have been accused of

THE 1998 FCC DIARIES The FCC 1998 range of executive diaries is now available at "Club" prices. Each has been specially produced with a wealth of important information, in either black imported bonded leather or calf skin for wallet. Al1 feature a discreet club logo and

your name, if requested. Avoid disappointment and order early as stocks are limited. Orders will be available to be collected in December. Allow three weeks for personalizing with your name or initials. A. The Desk Diary. 58 weeks in popular week-to-view format; international public holidays; world atlas. B. The FCC Compact Desk Diary. The new convenient size of 164 x 210mm, popular week-to-view diary; intemational public holidays; general information.

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conveying only negative impressions about Hong Kong and the transition to Chinese rule - the disputes over civil rights iaws, the public protests at Chater Garden - while ignoring the

"good news" story that the fundamentals of Hong Kong's

C. The FCC Pocket Diary. 58 weeks in the popular week-to-view format; international public holidays; HK$ 80.00 general information. D. The FCC Address Book. Handy pocket size with HK$ 90.00 international IDD codes and world time chart.

economic success remain intact (See page 10). Those who accuse us of bad-mouthing Hong Kong point to a very realgap in perceptions between what people abroad think is happening here - tanks rolling down Nathan Road - and the reality of a vibrant city we see everyday.

E. The FCC Calf Skin Wallet. Ideal for the Pocket

correspondents are reporting negative

Diary.

Order forms ayailable at the front desk or call Alice or Nigel on 2521 l5ll

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Part of the impression that we

stories, I think, stems from

misunderstanding about the role of the foreign media and what it is we as correspondents do.

newspapers, as anyone who as ever seen our apartment rent bills can

tell you. The role of the press is in large

part to report on what is new and different, not what remains static. \üØhen we are accused of overly emphasising the proposed changes in civil liberties laws, while ignoring Hong Kong's continuing economic strength, I think that misses the point.

I like to use the example of planes

landing atKarTak. If 50 planes land safely one day, we don't report it because it's not news. If one Plane has a tire biow out and skids off the runway, it will probably be reported here because it fits the definition of news it's unusual, it's out-of-the-

ordinary. A part of that process is to report on who is affected by change. 'ùØhen an oldinance is amended, someone, someplace, will feel an impact of the change, and it's the job of the reporters

to find out who and give them a voice. It's not enough to say that ninety percent of people will feel no effect; our job is to find the ten percent

who will.

Most of the full time

correspondents here are regionallybased, meaningwe are here to cover but we also the Hong Kong story recognise that it's not -the only story.

Indonesia is facing questions of succession, the Philippines next year see its democracy tested by an

will

electoral transition, Taiwan remains a fascinafing place to watch, and

there are of course the dynamic changes occurring everyday just across the border in the Mainland.

Hong Kong is a key regional listening post.

The fact that hundreds of regulations

Being here now is particularly

from how to register your car to -paying your local taxes are

rewarding for me, since I made my first trip here some 14 yeaß ago during a break in graduate school, fell in love with the city and its dynamism, and have been plotting a relurn ever since. So settle in, because we're in for a wild and fun ride.

remaining untouched does not-a news storymake. The news is in the change,

like the removal of the Queen's likeness from the stamps to the alteration of police uniforms to the of of deletion the word "royal."

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journalists ale conring. At last count rnoletlran 8,400oirhern to

cover one of the greatest end-ofmillennium peacetime stories. As Anson Chan said in a speech in Manila the other day, if Hong Kong can sun ive that, the rest should be easy. But will it? That's the 64,000 dollar question all those inter\/iewers, commentators, analysts and u'ri[ers will be posing as tliey leport this postscript of Empire.

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having the occasional row with

and

stlengthened, Hong Kong can fr-rlfil its potential as the Neu' York of Asia.

That's been at the heart of the debate we have been having these last five years. Tl'ie people of Hong Kong

work? Will Hong Kong remain fi'ee? \Øhat do yo:u reølly think of Hong Kong's future prospects? I'11 answer as I always do - as a rational and cautious optimist vu'ith a belief in the people of Hong Kong. They have made

They can do that so long to demonstfate

as thelr continue

the self-confidence to stand up fol their rights, as tl-rey did so recenlly in the face of tl'ireats to roll back some ol their civil liberties. These ale people vt'l-ro know u.'hat it's like to live in a

before Britannia giides thlough the great bowl of light that will illr-rrninate oLÌ1' magnificent halbour shorrly after Jr-rne 30 has tr,rrned into July 1. FCC members know my answer p|et t)'wel[. It is that Hong E Kong will go on bcing one oltheÈ greatest cities in the world - ! provided that the promises of the < Sino-British Joint Declaration on

lule of law, is preserved

the globe as the tlansition reaches its r-nidnight climax. Can it wor-k? \Øill it

on to a better tomorrow

rnillion tirnes already - well, it feels like a n'iillion times'- and will no dotrbt be asked it againandagain

Hong Kong's future are honoured. I have no doubt that so long as the combination of political freedom and econornic liberty, underpinned by the

will be fired in from every cornel of

this place the spectaclrlar success story it is toda1, and they can go

I'r,e been asked the question a

r-rndelstand that even if some of our critics don't. Some of them think the 28th and last British Governor of Hong I(ong shoulcl have tip-toed lound this issue and gone for a quiet life.

Sole Agent: SllRIR0

That was never an option. The choice was clearcut. Either I stood up for the people of Hong Kong and the freedoms and rights they wele promised by Blitain and Cl'rina in the Joint Declalation, at the risk of

fi'ee society. It will not be for the people of Hong Kong alone to speak up for' those rights and freeclorns. Britain

q'ill

The rnedia should keep

tl-re

will continue to do so. many others.

China; or, I coulcl have done what the Chinese wanted me to clo - and spcnt the last lew yeals in A low

with the derlocrats who, by

any

measure, represent maj ority opinion

in this commnnity. \What sort of questions q,.ould journalists be asking me and Britain now if I had chosen the latter course? I know whal those questions would l-rave been and, frankly, I could not have answeled them with a clear consclence. But qLlestions rernain, and they

spotlight on Hong Kong, too. Not just at tl-re historic mornent u'hen tl-re flags change, but in the weeks and montl'is ancl years - the decades - that follow. Hong Kong mllst not be allou'ecl

to become a sound bite of liistory. Don't folget - none of us shoulcl folget - that China has prornised in the Joint Declaration to allou, Hong Kong to continue pretty rnuch as yoll find it today for the

50 years up to the

year 2047.

Norv tl-rat's a stol'y s,'orth watcl-ring.

PrÍntthenqs

Ted's folly? l>1r J

<>nathran À4irsky

f I

t is always fashionable to attack lhe press and oftån with good reason. rvluch of wlrat appears in it is garbage. Or offensive. An editor recently asked me to go to

Taiwan

to interview the mother of a girl. I

kidnapped, tortured and murdered

joking. Yes, indeed. Much dreck in the papers. As in public said I assumed she was

relations. For those who missed Mr Thomas's meeting in late April, this - with a few cuts for space - is how I reported it for my paper. Mr Thomas told me later it was fair. A group of Hong Kong businessmen yesterday condemned the foreign press for its biased reporting during the period before the transfer of sovereignty to China, and

blamed the international media here for causing the hotel, tourist and retail businesses

to decline badly. The newlyfounded group, Advance Hong Kong, heldits firstmeeting, attendedbyabout 100 mostly foreign tourist agency and hotel managers, lactory owners, artists and retail

shop owners, who accused international journalists of causing people in Europe and Japan, as one of them put it, to 'think that Hong Kong was going down the slippery slope andis doomedbecause ofthe Handover

to China'. The group was formed and the meeting last night chaired by Ted Thomas, a public relations executive. ''\ùle're going to fightfirewithfire,' saidMr Thomas, who announced that he intended to

pay the travel and hotel expenses of experienced Hong Kong-based journalists 'with

positive view' to return to their countries

Cont. onpage 12

Advance Hong Thre first rneeting of a neu¡ groLrp dedicated to prorred to t>e ill ternpered. T-y'te <lorcesporzcient tkre roorrr. Also on thris page, J<>natlr.an À4irsky fnclepen¿letzt in London, skrare tLreir tkror-rghts

Jf rn.r. is one thing the first public meeting of Advance Hong Kong I demonstrated, it is that thele are two sides to every sto1y. Advance Hong Kong is a plessure group set up by FCC member' Ted Thomas to "talk back" to the internationai media which, he says, is feeding the rest of the world biased stories about how Hong Kong is doomed. The inaugural meeting of AHK at the FCC was riven with distrust on both sides of the media camp. A few days before the meeting, Advance Hong Kong had pubiished the foilowing advertisement in the South China Morning Post: "Help us stop 5 billion people being fed garbage." The veteran Thomas and fellow Advance Hong Kong member Thomas Axmacher, who is chairman of the Hong Kong Hotels Association, claimed that the foreign media had been busy blackening the name of the territory. The likes of Robert Chua, the owner of a "No news, no sex, no violence, " satellite TV channel targeted at China, came

along to give support. "The press has successfully killed the golden goose," Axmacher had roared, as he blamed the media for 10,000 reservations of Hong Kong's 34,000 hotel rooms being cancelled for the handover. Axmacher and Thomas memorably quoted rrtaxi driver wisdom" to make their points. Axmacher said that at recent hotel industry fairs in Tokyo and Asaka, journalists had asked 'rquestions like they were coming from the moon". Nextupwas Chua, who complaineclthat'rnotone singlepersonhas ever congratulated me" on the return of Hong Kong to China. Chua said

that reporters ancl commentators had been "misusing their freedom" in their coverage of the handover story. After the formal presentations came the questions. The first came from Bernard'Wijedoru, an engineer by profession, whose business card lists him as being a "PRC appointed Hong Kong

K ng! ir-rrprorzing tkre xzorld's vievz of Hong I{ong reporter q/as riveted to Lris .seat at tLre front of <>f 7-be 7-irrtes and Steve Vines <->f Tlbe on A.drzance Hong l(ong District Affairs Advisorrr and "Committee Member, Association for Celebration of Reunification of Hong Kong with China". The premise of his question was that the territory is a victim of a "\Øestern Conspiracy and-'that (it) cannot succeed except as a western colony". Thomas's response was swift. "No, I don't think itrs a conspiracy", he began before saying, "bad news is better than good news". Another speaker was Elaine Goodwin who has spent 27 years in Hong Kong and who offered a reminder of what life in Hong Kong is about. She noted that it is safe for a woman to be out by herself at four o'clock in the morning and "we don't have serial killers because our police catch them". Observers at the meeting suggested thatboth\Øijedoru and Goodwin represented Advance Hong Kong's two partisan lobbies: the older expat community and the pro-China constituency.

The pro-China lobby was also represented by some of the local speakers who appeared to feel more affinity to the future than the past. That af least was the view of speaker Sam Ho, who added that he was "very upset" at all the China-bashing. The general irritabliliry of some of the supporters of Advance Hong Kong was illustrated after a couple of reportersr questions to the panel, after which one of them demanded "'ùØho pays you? !ího pays you"? Towards the end of the meeting matters came to ahead, although not a resolution, when yet another skeptical question was posed from the front of the room. Frank, a budy expatriate, then told all the skeptics to "Bugger off as quickly as possible. There are plenty of planes". As'\)Øinston Churchill, who was a Great Communicator long before the spin doctors got into the business, said: "Everyone is in favour of free speech. But some people's idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone also says something bad, that is an outrage." @

b¡z Sterze Vines

\Y/nu is the Foreign media notwriling W ,n" good news about Hong Kong? \Øhy, say our apparently growing band critics, must we always accentuate the ,of negative? Like the ghastly mother of the rule-

breaking ballroom dancer

in the brilliant

Australian film "Ballroom Dancing", we are urged to put on our "happy face" when we address the public.

The sad face should, we are told, be tucked away in a drawer somewhere. The problem is that the public is not really interested in what may be labelled good news or bad news, it want s what may be called real news. Real news tends to be about people and events at times of change. It may be a very small change, such as the closure of a series of roads, or a realiy big change like the change in sovereignly due to occur in Hong

Kong onJuly

By definition the news is not necessarily good or bad but interesting because it relates to dynamic events. Thanks to the efforts of our esteemed

FCC member Ted Thomas, an interesting group of fellows, mainly expatriate, public relations men, businessmen and others have been drawn together to form an organisation

dedicated to denouncing the foreign press for spreading a negative image of the colony.

At theil founding meeting carefully selected membels ofthe audiencewere called

upon to deliver testimonials about how the dreadful foreign media were undermining their br,rsinesses. They told tales of meeting taxi drivers in far flung places who had a Cont. on pctge 13 l.une 1997 Tf,E CORRDSPOI|IIDNT

rl@o-

HAêXKÈ

\(Po'-

#i[ \-^"!)l

8,, o

mouthing and its near-fafaI effects is nonsense, especially since they can't deny most of the 1ocal econony is booming. Their selected quote from Keith Richburg says it all, that'actir,ists' had demonstrated. \Øe11, theydid and Keith reported it. Just as he recently reported on the man who goes about writing curious messages on walls. That's what we do: repofi.

Mr Thomas and his friends say hotei bookings are down. I make two suggestions: First, investigate the effect of the scafe campaign last year by tbe botels that they would be packed outthis summer, urging early booking, and posting outrageous rates. Second, China is coming lo Hong Kong. People read Mr Tung's

Pfint the negs

stability. Fortunately, for the spreaders of disinformation, like myself, MrThomas

J\;* .

c2€bE s=q /\

TedtS fOlly?

continuedfrorupøge 1o

'and tell editors and publishers what a greatplace Hong Kong is'. Mr Thomas declared at the outset thatno-one could speak atthe meeting

'except those who are like-minded'. After about a dozen in the audience spoke about the harm the international press had car-rsed the hotel business, whose bookings for the period after the summerwere claimedto have sunk by over 10 per cent, and the tourist business, about which the same was TEE CORRDSPOilDEII|T Iune 1997

said, Mr Thomas told reporters, 'I hope you report that the views atthis meeting are unanimous'. James Tien, president of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce, said yesterday, howeveL, that successful

international businesses paid no

attention to the press and based their views of Hong Kong's fttture on what local experts told them. Mr Thomas has written to me that he can't yet name what he terms his

'apostles' or''ambassadot's' because some of those interwiewed might not meet his standard and he would not want to embarrass the failures. I warned hin that a journalist showing up in a respectable news-room with 'good news'aboutHong Kong, and on expenses, would be iuckyto be invited

to submit a written piece in

the

traditional lnanne

Of conrse, what Mr-Thomas and his supporters allege about press bad-

Things like that worry people. Bookings are down in China too. China is responsible for its own bad image:

Tibet,

\ùØei

Jingsheng, US campaign - a poisonous cocktail. AsJames Tien says, it doesn't

money, Tiananmen

stop businessmen from investing here.

'!Øhat

might slow them down is another factor, discussed by Philip Segal in the IHT, May 1.6 and 1J : what rs the Hong Kong economy?

Of course, press bashing has a corollary: press control. Mr Tung has

is far from unique. There is an understandable tendency for people to questionthe messengermore closely

than the message. Bad news

therefore the fault of those bringing

entirely barmy solution to the problem. I say fortunately because I would hate to have to defend every single report filed from Hong Kong, many of which areas Ï¡arkingas the new organisation.

the news. The Romans dealt with this rather severely by killing messengers

hopers drawn from the ranks of foreign journalists (believe meno one buta no hoper would be party to this scheme)

Club cartoonist and member Arthur Hacker expresses his own unique view of foleign journalists in Hong Kong (yes, tbere is a T-shin. See page 42 for details or ask Arrbur øt tbe bar)

'threaten national security'.

and his cronies came up with an

Their solution? Get this: they propose to sign up a bunch of no

r covEREDl ??7 FRoM rHE SCC"

only to mention the international media in a certain tone at a business lunch and he gets thlrnderous applause. He never mentions the local press which is not entirely tamed yet, in which his vision of a Hong Kong wh ere reseørcb

on Tibetan or

Taiwanese

independence is illegal (see Michael Suen in the Støndørd, May 17), and is scrutinised critically. No, it's the international press. A foreign reporter recentþ asked MrTung if his, the reporter's, life would change onJuly 1. \Øait and see, said Mr Tung. I can't wait that long, said the reporter. OK, said the future chief executive,

read Basic Law, Article 23. And Mr Thomas thinks u)e're a threat.

continuedfrompage 11

distorted picture of Hong Kong's

'r{':l

plans for a 'stable' city which - can there be anything weirder? - forbids demonstrations for Tibet's and Xinjiang's independence and will not

and get them to visit newsrooms around the globe to tell editors that their coverage of Hong Kong is

delivering

ill

tidings. Nowadays we

die a slow death (figuratively, I stress) caused by prolonged wingeing. The PR men are mobilised, at an

houdy rate, like the world's oldest profession, to improve the message but what are they to do if the message is less than, shall we say, perfect? I spent many years covering the Middle East, specifically the Israel-

Palestine conflict. The memory of

inaccurate and unfair. Presumably the

messenger shooting in those days still

said editors would then have a total rethink of their Hong Kong coverage, kick out the generally well respected

haunts me. I recall being harangued by government spokesmen for being part of a'Zionist plot' or alternately'an

correspondents based here and replace

anti-Semitic conspiracy', because I had reported somethingwhich one side or the other did not like.

them with the aforementioned no hopers, who would write glowing repons abouL what's happening. Alternately they might be shown the door or even fail to be invited in for a chat. PR men have some strange icleas about what goes on in newsfooms. Although this is up there among the more crazy of the schemes which I have had the misfofiune to witness, it

Lamentably no one has ever allowed me to join their plot. Even here in Hong Kong I have never been

called, is no paragon of virtue. \X/e come in all shapes andsizes. Allhuman life is here from low, to iower and, just occasionallywe hit some highs. I can say, hand on heart, that some of the very worst peopie I've ever met are journalists. I can equally say that some of the best are drawn from the same trade. The idea that this notoriously hard to organise bunch of people could ever be part of anyone's plot to do down any

spot on earth, is so absurd that only very gullible people could believe it. Yet we do suffer from herdlike behaviour and hacks do tend to follow the herd, evenif it is heading in awrong direction. This, however, shouldnotbe construed as being part of a plot. Itis no more than stupidity. I don't think there is much to be gained from defending stupidity, but I hate to see it confused with well thought out intent.

None of us is perfect. I'm told that even PR men suffer from imperfection, but that's no more than a rumour. Mostly we are just working

stiffs, lrying to get a job done.

approached by the CIA, M15 or whoever, to do their dirty work. I'm not saying I would help them, but

Lamentably, for the conspiracists, it is no more complex than that.

sometimes a chap likes to be asked. Don't get me wrong, the average hack, or journalistaswe are sometimes

column wbicb originally appeared in

(This article is ad.øpted from a

tbe Asia TimesJ

Nne 1997 Tf,E c0RRf,SPOltDENT

way Han Dong-fang speaks. A tall, slim man who can dispense with a suit and tie ancl yet still project authority, he has a keen brain as well as principles. Thank you, he said immediately after every question. You heard that as often as his comment 'I am not a politician.' In Han's world-view, the problems the Chinese workforce faces have two sources. In the state sector which is facing bankruptcy, the top managers, usually party

appointees, are corrupt.'The

Corrupt' is probably the way it should be written.

'To

SØell that would be nice if the Chinese Communist Party would let it happen, but it doesn't. As bad as the hard-headed businessmen and women who are investing in China is the CCP which stamps with great vigour on the independent trade union movement. Han told of one activist who was sentenced to three years re-education (i.e. hard labour) for making T-shirts which had printed on them slogans saying workers need rights as well as a hammer and sickle.

Another case was that of independent labour act ivists in

Chinese keep quiet, quiet, quiet, quiet until the one day we will have ho tomorrow's breakfast...

'I'm going to die

the questions atthe endwere, despite the full house, rather lacklustre, at least in terms of whatHan had to say '!Øhat he had about free trade unions. to say about his fate and the fate of

other dissidents currently living in Hong Kong became the story, ATV's Susan Yu asked, can Hong

make

Kong still be a safe

money for their

haven after the handover? 'I'm

family, to

save

money in foreign banks that's what they have done,'

not sure,'he

he said of

honest. He then said to some polite laughter

said, which was

disarmingly

these

managefs' activities, his brutal honesty s Ê 's

that he would

proving clefinitely

follow Mr Tung's

role and'saygood

that

'Personally I trust

that he is politician.

Not

things

"L afrr not a

politician"

of the mainland's economic miracle. Not, it must be said, as a vicious act ofsabotage but as a trade unionist

questioned whether the situation now is a improvement on what China was like 20 years ago.

and freedom, albeit Ìater, the immediate way they treat their Chinese staff leaves a lot to be

'How easy for government

officials. They can buy a MercedesBenz car and they change their car

Hart Dong-fang, Cl-rina,'s t>est knou.n dissident lirzing in Hong l(ong, a"nd publisl-rer of a r-rr:a.ga.zir:e szhricLr deals xzitkr la-t>or-rr rigl-rts on tl-re rnairrland, recently addressed a Club lunchr. 1\4ichrael l\4acke;z s/as threre

every year. But how difficult for ordinary Chinese workers to buy a TV for their home. 'The officials, they spend just one

month of their income, or the

business people in China, they spend just ten days of their income to buy a very expensive car, but the workers

we spend three years accounts to buy a TV. Is this progress? I don,t think so.' There is a quiet dignity ro rhe

later Han said that reading

better employers.

downside, of what goes on in China's

booming economy. He even

although with an edge to it, when

any

\X/hi1st f oleign businesses run alound saying their activities will help create the

who sees the human side, the

Therewasmore

polite laughter,

Nor, seemingly,

ate they

rule of law, respect for human rights

desired.

One of the most telling details offered by Han was that of a foreignowned factory where workers were only allowed to use the toilets twice a day and then only for five minutes. 'Is that freedom? Is that democracy?' he asked. 'This is the general situation. You

first'.

him,'he added.

foreign investors

in China got off any easier. an Dong-fang, metaphorically threw a spanner in the works

anyway

tomorrow so we die together; we're going to rebel. That is the Chinese people's habit.' Maybe because of this warning

newspapers 1n Hong Kong was Shenzhen

who had their self-run course in labour law closed

like reading the People's Daily.

down,and their federation was then declared illegal. 'They were then

from a Vietnamese correspondent in

arrested for being 'illegally

registrated'. On this Han is as mystified as the rest of us. 'lfhat is that? I cannot understand that,' he cried. As if this situation were not bad

enough, the future that he foresees has the potential to be even more

probiematic. 'I'm worried,' his remarks began, '50 million or more

cannot do that in your country, why you do that in China?'he asked. This is why the Chinese workfol'ce needs its own trade union movel-nent to use collective bargaining to irnprove

workers have no job, not including those from the countryside. 'lf, between the workers and the government there is no channel to make a negotiation, what is going to

working standards.

happen? Flom our history, we

The next question,whichcame Putonghua, followed up Susan Yu's point. From a crossed translation came the phrase which sticks: 'to kill the chicken to show the monkey'. \X¡hat it means is that Chinese dissidents living in Hong Kong will be arrested. 'I don't think there will be a big outcry,'he said, not so much for the sake of arresting them but to show other dissidents, 'they cannot escape'. Francis Moriarty put the qttestion, go? Like so many others his response covers both

will you stay or will you sides of the argument,

'(I) have to I will

prepare for the worst, of course stay.' June 1997 Tf,E C0RRf,SPOilI¡EI{T

Sogyal Rinpoche Words and picture by David Thurston

Tl-re j<>:riaI Tit>eta-n Buddhist teacl-rer Sog¡zal Rinpockre a-ddressed a- packed rrra-in dining roon-r f<>r a. club luncl-reon. His first rzisit to the FCC tra-d been irr L993 qzhen his book TVte 7-ibetatz ,Book o1f Liuirzg cttzcl l)jsirzg h.ad a-chrierzed unlikely fa.rrte b¡z knocking Jackie Collins off tl-re t>est-seller list. neof thegreatlivingmastersof Good Afternoon, you say Remember is so much hope and fear. And this and Dying. Because ifyou remember dying hope and fear makes us weak. (I don't certainly its most eloquent of teachers, youmightrememberwhatlifeandliving mean the big Hope, I'm not talking seemed to be wearied by four years on is. The prophet Mohammed, when about that). I'm talking about Tibetan Buddhist thought,

the road. He was on his way to Tai'wan, where there was an enthusiastic welcome eadierthis yearfrom all

askedhowhepurifiedtheheartandthe expectations

and the f ear of

disappointment, these are the two teats the ego grasps. So, let

walks of life, when the Dalai Lama paid a controversial visit. At the FCC this time, Rinpoche's boyish good humour was mutecl. After

go of the hope and fear, and

some initial teasing of the audience as to whether they would prefer him to talk about

which when I fist'heard it was a tremendous revelation because

life or about death, he chose to

practice of meditation, revealing the inner nature of mind: Just as

quietly let things settle.

"There's a f,amous saying from a great master of the past

water,

become clear, that's the nature

said. "Besides, I would think the notion of impermanence would be right for Hong Kong," he giggled.

of the water. In the same manner, the nature of mind is such that if

journalists in reporting suffering to the

value of hallucinatory drugs in achieving enlightenment. The answers

always seemed to return to the favourite conundrum: if you haven't died, you haven't really lived. Or put

in an unaltered state then it wiil find it's tnre nature. "There was another Zen master who said that the way to control a cow or a sheep is to give it a big field to graze

in. Then, also, if you're trying to

seen as an oppofiunity, for in many ways death is like a mirror in which the true meaning of life is reflected. There

miscommunication going on), what is a pracfical method in that moment to

resolve that situation

He wants not to suffer. Once you start to

was a very interesting habit among the Christian contempiatives who, although they had a vow of silence,had a sofi of

eliminate the frustration?" Rinpoche replied: "I think first you stop, andyou let go of trying. Quietly breathe and bring your mind home. Release the grasp onto all that effort. " Sometimes the trouble with us is there

feel ofthe other person as anotberyou,

successful death is whatlife is all about.^ "rùØhat is very important is that death should not be presented as atragedy or a bitter end, but rather death should be

greeting

to one another:

'Memento

mori', or 'Remembel dying'. It's like instead of saying Good Molning or THD G0RRXSPOilDDNT June 1997

on fbeÍront couer.

contrive or fabricate but leave it

communicate, it's so important to try to understand the other person, rather than your own point of view. It's very helpful in the resolution of conflicts. The Tibetans have a saying which translates as: "I (or selfl, other, same". Instead of consideringthe otherperson as another person you consider them as very much like you. Just like you, he's gotfeelings andwants to behappy.

another way, prepatation fof

legal d.ocurnents, on a background. of one of tbe Cbinese þages laying out tbe terrns of tbe lease. Tltis is tbefine art uersion of the editorial work tbat etpþea.rs

you do not manipulate or mind from the debris of all that he saw, said: 'by much thought of God and thinking of death'." Francis Moriarty, noted for his nitty gritry radio re pofiage, characteristically brought things down to earth with a

practicalquestioh of the here andnow: "NØhen one finds oneself in a situation

when something isn't happening (either you try to convey an emotion and it's not being received, or you'd like to convey it but you can't, or

there's some other kind of in order

then suddenly the whole connection and how we look at that other person changes. This may sound a bit simple but actually when you practice it, it is

extraordinarilyprofound." @

Nønking 1842 and Conuention of Peking 1898. Tbe original løbelsfrom tbe British Foreign Office ,couers botb

if you don't stir it, will

It was the questions that followed that brought the meeting alive. Topics ranged from the role of

Left: Red Veluet, Gold leøf: Treøty

it really spoke to the heart of the

rcadaprepared text about death After all, they are in

^nry'ày. effect the same thing

Toþ:Iines and Iineage: Treaty of Nønking 1842. Cbop of tbe Em1>eror Taou Kuang merged witb tbe Emperorts Imþerial Autograpbic reply as testffied by Rob Moryison, Britßb Foreign Office Cbinese Secretary and Interpreter.

"signed aîd Sealed" An exhibition by Pat Elliott Shircore

'Tn" image on this month's cover is I a montage of the original Hong

Kong lease and Treaty of Nanjing created by Hong Kong graphic designer and club member Pat Elliott Shircore. It is part of a portfolio of editorial and fine art images that Pat has created from the original documents. HongKongwas cededin perpetuity to Britain under the Treaty

Peking, for a period of 99 years. In 19 84

Mar gar et Thatcher's

ons

ervative

government gave up all rights to Hong Kong and as is well documented, on June 30, L997 HongKongwill revert to Chinese sovereignty.

In the Spring of 7996, Pat was working in her studio at home with the radio on, when she heard a news

item of no particular interest relating

of Nanjing in 1.842. }Iaff a century later the 'ownership'was extended under

to the handover of Hong Kong,

by the 1898 Convention of

with China. It suddenly ocurred to her

lease,

marking the end of the lease agreement

"'W'hatdoes the lease actually look like physicalþ)'and realised that she had never seen a picture of it; so she asked around to see whether anyone else -

had. People had seen pictures of the 1842 Treaty of Nanking, but no one had seen the lease. Research unearthed the fact that there were eight original copies of the document, four in Peking and four in the Public Records Office in London, so last June she went to London and

dfug out the British copies. June7997 Tf,E C0RnDSP0lfDHlT

To her

Coral and Leather. Conuention oJ Peking 1898. Tbe cbop oftbe Emperor Kwang Hsu, blended witb tbe page ratifying the Conuention and excbanging contracts, merged witb tbe signatory þage endorsed by Lord Salisbury and. Lofenghib

delight, she discovered that they were

not only interesting but also very beautiful. One copy is bound in the Foreign Office standard crimson clothboard, but another lies belween two thin wooden boards, covered in silk brocade, lined inside with yellow Emperor silk and tied with yellow silk ribbons. The documents are a mixture of both English text and Chinese calligraphy, British Royal seals and various Chinese chops amongstwhich is that of the Emperor Kuang Hsu; main signatories include members of the Tsungli Yamen (Chinese Foreign Office), Claude Macdonald and Lord Salisbury. Pat returned to Hong Kong with colour copies of the 1898 Convention of Peking ("the Leaser'), as well as relevant pages from the 7842Treaty of Nanking, and has produced a series of

pictures looseiy based on these documents. She scanned them into her

Macintosh computer and has mixed the Chinese cailigraphy, English text, chops, signatures and textures together with her own graphic elements , to create a series of unique digital art images, Since contributing a set of twenty

graphic illustrations to ProFile photo hbrary, intended for use with edjtorial pieces, Pat has developed the theme

much further and has completed a new art portfolio of thirty images that stress the artistic and stylistic beauty of the lease documents. Her work has resulted in strong, almost abstract images of striking colours and subtle textures which will be produced as a Limited Edition of 97 pieces, printed lithographically on fine paper with hand torn edges and bearing the printer's impimatur seal, which she will exhibit at the Lan Kwai Fong Gallery,June 24toJuIy 37 andalso at the Club itself during the Handover.

Tf,D C0RRf,SPOilllEIlT June 1997

Far left: Rock and Ink: Conuention of Peking 1898 Callígrøþhic signature of Lofengbib, Chinese Special Imþer¡al Reþresentatiuefor British Alfairs, with tbe signa.ture of lord Salisbuty, Br¡tisb Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Alfairs,

jt I a

ouerlaicl on tbe map sbou,ting tbe proposed bounda.ries of tbe New Temitories

Ieft:

Text

ønd Context:

Trec¿ty of

Nanking 1842

The cboþ of tbe Emperor Taou Ktuang ouerløpping tbe official Foreign Office seal reþresenting Her Majesty Queen Victoriø, ouerlaid. uith a. pa.gefrom the Treaty dealing uitb Trade and Tariff agreements. Top: Amber Vellum: TreatJ) oÍ Nønking 1842. Final signatory double page signed, sealed. and choppecl b1t Sir Henry Pottinger, Her Majestyts Pleniþotentiary ancl tbree Cbinese Inxperial PleniÞotentiaries, Elepoo, Newcbien and. Keying; Atxicle 3, ceding Hong Kong to Brita.ín ttin þetpetuity)" ß superimposed on tbe image. Right: Pages from The Conuention of Peking: 1 . Standard Foreign Office couer, Conuention of Peking 1898, yellotu label on crimson clotbboard. Identical to tbe couer of tbe Treø1) of Nctnking 1842, sbowing tbat Br¡.tisb Gouentment intemal filing sysrems atþpeolr not to ba.ue cbanged in tbe intenteningfifty stx years; 2. Page from tbe Conuention of Peking 1989, bearing tbe signatures of Lofengbib, Cbinese Special Imperial Representatiuefor British A,f,faírs, and lord. Salisbury, Britisb Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, affirming tbeir authority to act on bebalf of their respectiue countries; J. Page 1 of tbe Conuention of Peking 1898, neatly summarizing tbe lease of the New Teritories for a þeriod of ninety nine !ea.rs;4. Tbe Ratification of tbe Conuention of Peking 1898, uerifying translations

rl t, |.

¡l

\!\uu.,r.þ5l-t.,

L qltr ú,'.. èft \q1 *5 , -ea ¡ìt,t\ù h! !]r* J hk ll t- rÆ L! r1.ul c k€ 'J Il.d,,.k ,u' ,u r'i" ,,r*t *ra ,!utútraLþ!{ ü.dtdìnLLßq¡ sr lL hqt u¡

L{L td .c L4\'taú\Ê¡\( L \t.^-.¿

,tr

ì-ts

lL L

-.5 u .i

ù ,-.

ItuJd.hhkrûl

u, .a- * .,, ., u*

rp ce E 'LÈ-¡ rL¡Ð Ì9.¡Àrnr¡ lv!rrL-tú,¡túJ¡t L 6G

and excbanging contra.cts. June 1997 TEE C0RRXSP0IIIIDNT

.!{

{

I 1^ Á

'^,

Overshadowed too is the sense of daily life for most ordinary people

continuing very much

normal. You

don'tfee1 an overriding sense of fear,

people racing for the exit. With the economy booming, in many quafiers, one feels quite the opposite. But there is another, and perhaps even more important reason for the impression abroad that Hong Kong is in worse shap efhanitmay actually be, at least right now. That reason is China. And here too

we have a paradoxical situation. Becanse while the spectre

of China

casts a worrying shadow over issues like civil liberties and press freedom,

western perceptions of China, especiallyinthe United

States,

emotions, so much so that in my view, they have contributed to a picture of contemporary China that is distorted, one-dimensional and over-simplistic. It is a picture of China as a countly

of brutal dictators,

beieaguered

dissidents and cormpt deal-makers, intent on using its economic clout and

military might to dominate

its

neighbours and challenge the US for

regional supremacy, and is now accused of plotting to subveft the American political process in what's become known as the donor-gate scandal.

China has a harsh authoritarian governmentthatlocks up manyof those who openiy disagree with it. It is often

seemto

me to be over simplistic, onedimensional and uniformly negative, turning what is legitimately

worrying

shadow into an unquestioned

guarantee ofdisaster.

I travelled

around the US to

promote my book,Chinø Liues: Tuto Decades in the Hearl of tbe Dragon,I have to say I was disturbed, and sometimes frankly appalled, by what seemed to me to be an across-theboard demonisation of China, a ft enzy

allegations and assertions that

sometimes smacked-of little more than

stirring up long dormant fears of the YellowPeril.

Details afidissues

The listener phone-ins where the

À4ike Cl-rino¡2, thre CNN t>r-rrear-r cl-rief in Hong l{ong, recently addressed tkre Freedorrr Forurn at>or-rt coverage of the cornl>le>< Ckrina story ((

a recent us book Tluring I -tour, where I did lots of,

listener call-in radio shows, amazedby

tLre

was

number of people who

asked me if Iwas goingto stayin Hong

because it might be dangerous. I even heard ofa travel agent in Britain who was refusing to book travellers to Hong Kong after July 1 until they could see what the situation here was.

Kong beyondJuly

I think there is an expectation

among at least some of the hordes of

reporters coming for the Handover that they just mightwitness Tiananmen

and offer a couple of tentative

people compared the Chinese government to the Nazis, to me symbolised how skewed many

I suspect, European perceptions of China are. There are many explanations. But for most people, I suspect they start

American and,

itwill hit, where it might break out, and who

with Tiananmen Square. The

First, the storm cloud we in the press have been charting is real. Actually, I like that storm cloud image because on a grey dayl can have my cameraman get a good shot of dark clouds over the harbour to illustrate

might be among the casualties.

student movement, which was shown

Yetthese kinds of details and issues are not only sometimes hard to get a handle on, but, because a lot of it is really like inside baseball, they are not always easyto convey in one's reports,

The Chinese army's

the point. But in fact, one of the

or to understand ifyou are watching or

problems comes preciselybecause that in an image it is easy for a journalist, or

reading, with relatively little familiarity with this situation, on the other side of

a viewer or reader, to convey and understand. ButI thinkthere are layers ofdetails,

theworld.

observations.

complexities, subtleties

and

unceftainties in the situation here that

Two, the militia of Beijing sweeping through Hong Kong. I have spent a lot

will have a major impact on

of time trying to puzzle this one out,

direction that impending storm might

what

take, when, or evenwhether,

we in the press are quite accurately charting the flow of events and news on a daily basis, some of 'ùØhìle

these more complex and subtle, yet extremelyimpofiantfactors, risk getting lost.

1989

live on CNN around the wodd, captured the imagination of millions.

ruthless

crackdown remains today, almost a decade later, the defining moment in American and western perceptions of China. Those TV images from Tiananmen Square, the Goddess of Democracy, the man standing in front of the tank,

have been seared into

our

consciousness, taking their place as among the most memorable symbols of resistance to lyranny this century. Even now, they retain the power to stir

In China }zolr can nos/ dress kro.nz yoLr y/ant, str-rd¡z a}'>t <>açl, Stalt )zour osãL t>r-rsiness, rrse a portable pl-rone, log in, uzitkr restrictions, to tkre lnterrìeL. Erzen in sorne pla-ces qzatctr CNN

watch CNN. Tens, perhapshundredsofmillions, of people have

seentheirlives changed

beyond recognition, emerging from poverty to, in some cases, remarkable wealth. These changes have beenthe result of the country's reforms, which, as the Harvard sinologist Roderick McFarquar noted, 'have made China accessible to lore gn ideas and infl uences in i

man¡er

unprecedented since the Tang Dynasly of the seventh century'. The highly respected former US Ambassador to China, Stapleton Roy, was fond of saying that the changes in China overthe past 15 yearshavebeen

sofar-reachingthateveryothersociety inthewoddthat has changed as much has collapsed. It is this process of change, both its

achievements and

its immense

problems, mainøining

credible central

government to hold a huge country together, corruption, the growing gap between rich and poor, the challenges of carrying out further market reforms, a profound crisis of political legitimacy, pressures for a more open political system, an even greatercrisis of national identity, answeringthe question ofwhat is China, whatitmeans to be Chinese in the modern world, reflected in the emerging counter-culture of Chinese

arlists, writers, pop singers and filmmakers, and the growing popularity of

religion, despite continuing difficultto dealwith. And,

the1996

missile crisis offTaiwan illustrated, it is

willing to resort to menacing displays of military prowess and nationalistic rhetoric to achieve its ends. But I would argue that China rìow dramaticaÌly different andmore open than it was in mid-1989, and certainly is

much more so than atthe time of my first visit in 1973. As I recount in my book, back then the Communist Party controlled the smallest details of daily

life, what you thought, where you lived, where you worked, even what clothes you wore.

Today, the degree to which the state interferes with people's private lives has shru nk dr amatically. You can dress how you want, study abroad, startyour own business, use a portable telephone, log inwith some restrictions to the Internet, even in some places

persecution; all this represents the real China story. My point here is simple: China is far more complex, multi-dimensional, and full of paradoxes than is widely acknowledged in discussions of Chinarelated issues in certain portions of the media, especially back at the head offices and home countries of some news organisations. AndI thinkit is this contefi , shaped not so much by the substance of what we are repofiingnow, as byperceptions firstmoulded in 1989 andsubsequentþ

hardened

part by China's own

behaviour and in pafi because of the difficulty of conveying the layers of complexity that make up China and Hong Kong t oday,thathas contributed theview so apparentlywidely shared abroad thatJuly 1 marks, without any question or doubt, an automatic death

sentenceforHongKong. June

1997

THE GORRDSPONIIIIIT

will not be allowed to write articies clitical of China ol its leaders. Is this in keeping u'ith the principles of the agreements? journalists

The Basic Law Article 2 of the Basic Law states 'The National People's Congress authorises the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to exercise a high degree of autonomy and enjoy executive, legislative and

Is China playing falr? byLao O'Mao

Jt*-iJn.f ., tlreJoint Dcc'laration ancl the Basic Law, tlre key docLnnents cletermining the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's (SAR) stmcture ancl lelations with Beiling afterJr-rne 30, 1997, Ch.ina is committed to 'one

two systems' in its future association with the SAR. Policy cor-rntry,

statements have assuled us that Hong

Kong u'ill be lnn by Hong Kong people and w'ill enjoy a high clegree of autonony. Altl-rougl-r the Handoverl'ias yet to folmally take p1ace, it is apparent that Beijing is intent on violating the spilit, if not the lelter, of the agleernents.

The

Joint Declaration

Section 3.I of the Joint Declaration which has the status of a treatybetweenthe UKand PRC states that 'Upholding national unity and territofial integlity and taking account of the history of Hong Kong and its

realities, the People's Republic of China has decided to establish, in accordance with the provisions of Article 31 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Lrpon resLrming the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong'. The history of Hong Kong is not specifically stated as comprising the period prior to the signing of the Joint Declalation, and so it must be assumed to l'efer to the period prior lo China's resumption of sovereignty.

Simply pr-rt, China is committed tcr maintaining HongKong in a rn:rnnel' consistent with Hong Kong's own history. Does rhe evidence now, prior to THD CORRESPONIIXI{T June 1997

independent judicial power,

the Handover', srÌpport

the

conclusion that Beijing will adhere to this agleement? Tl-re most blatant example of Beijing interfering in tl-re internal affairs of the Hong Kong SAR is the replacement of the

Legislative Council (Legco). The people of Hong Kong, in September 1995, directly elected the members ofLegco, and so that event must be considered part ofthe history of Hong Kong. China, however, decicled that

It is apparerrt tl-rat I3eijing is intent on viol-¿ting the spirit, if rrot the letter, of tLre agreelTrents

will the life-sty1e. Rights

and freedoms, including those of the person, of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association ... will be ensurecl by law in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region'. This clause would appear to preclude China fi'om amending civil rights' legislation passed by Legco

br-rt it

not. In another example,

including that of final adjudication, in accordance with the provisions of this law'. In Article 5, the concept of 'one country, two systems' is spellecl out as follows: 'The socialist system and policies shall not be practisecl in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and the previous capitalist system and way of life shall remain unchanged for 50 years.'

Articles 2 and 5 do not contain

Section 3.2 of the Joint

definition of 'the socialist system' or 'the prer.ious capitalist system and way of life'. Are these tel'ms purely economic? I think not. Socialism and capitalism must be taken in their social, historic and political contexts,

Declalation, and Articles 13 and74, respectively, of the Basic Law glant

ihe central government autholity over Hong Kong's foleign and defence affafts. Nowhere else in these two supreme documents is any

other area of Hong Kong

not simply as concepts regarding the

ownelship of property (the most

Government's rights specifically

basic diffelence between the two). Hong Kong's capitalist system gre\ /

curtailed. NØe must, therefore, assume that these are the only two areas whele Beijing legally holds sway. Outside of foreign and defence affairs, any

up in an environment of benign government, a system nnder which freedom of the press and assembly were only curtailed during times of extreme disorder and unrest (e.g. the 1967 'disturbances' when some

effort by Beijing to influence Hong Kong must be seen as interference in Hong Kong's internal affairs.

of the zed. of China's Great Proletariat

Cultural Revolution spilled over from

Løo O'Møo is a pseud,onymJòr a

Guangdong into Hong Kong). To

political ancl economic analyst in

take awaythe right of people lo freely assemble and write is to violate the

Hong Kong, altbougb since 1949, Cb ina's c onstitution b as guarønteed free speecb a.nd afree press.

integrity of Hong Kong's existing

system.

has

school

authorities have been pressurecl into revising textbooks to, for example,

censor analysis of the

7989

Tiananmen Square demonstrations. Tiananrlen, according to press reports about pressure to censol, is not considered an historic event. One

suggestion made early last year' would have left ollt references to events feu.er than 20 years o1d. Thls notion wouicl have (at the time) had Hong Kong students taught that, accor-ding to histoly, nothing of

importance has occurred in China the electionviolated the agreements.

since the GangolFourwel'e in power.

The new Provisional Legislative Council (which will take over on

Deng Xiaoping's 1978 revolution, changing the basic economic principles of the nation, would not be deemed histolic enough to be taught to Hong Kong children (although their mainland counterparts must study recent history). Such exclusion of part of Chinese historywould, however, not

July 1) was not directly chosen by the people of Hong Kong in open and fair elections. Moreover, and much more disturbing, several of the members selected for the provisional legislature are candidates who failed

to win popular srÌpport in

the September 1995 election. The only honest conclusion

that Beijing does

not intend to allow Hong Kong

be precedent-setting in Hong Kong. The British adrninistrationhas in the past decreed that post-1!49 Chinese

people to run Hong Kong when it

history would not be taught in

d<¡esn't suit China.

Éaovernment-funded schools.

Section 3.5 of the Joint

Declaration states that 'The current social and econorlic systems in Hong

Kongwill remain unchanged, and so

Anothel example touches

clirectly on the media: since the Basic

Hcndover T-shirt

HK$ 100,00

Hondover Polo Shirt HK$175,00 Hondover Coffee

Mug

HK$80,00

Hondover Golf Bolls (set of

HK$70,00

STOCKS ARE LIMITED ORDER NOW

Tel: 2521

l5l

Fax:2868 4092

or enquire of the front desk

Law was passed, senior officials in China have warned that Hong Kong June

1997 TEE CORAXSPOII|IIENT

Hangover 1997 I The FCC Entertainment Committee proudly presents the One Club, three pafiies Handover blitz, \øithout doubt, the FCC istheplace to catchtheBUZZ fromthe streetandaBlJZZfromthewell-stockedbarduringhistoric handover week. 'SØe've put together a triple header of events to ensure members and their guests can celebrate the Last of

I T

29 JUNE

1997

This pre-party party in the Main Dining Room promises to be a gala event with gourmet menu, plenty

of liquids and the knock-out blues, soul and Motown band Soul Commotion all for an inclusive price of HK$1997 per couple or HK$997 for singles (valid until 2:00 am). Black tie optional.

1997

include 101 large, and 25 smaller, broadcast studios which are fully

should bring their own aspirin. Ensuring that visiting journalists

in the coverage of it are hinting that Hong Kong '97 might prove to be memorable for more than historic

booked. The press section contains 85 booths (all booked) and free seating space for 650 individuals available on a

are properly briefed, the Trade

reasons. Already dubbed the hangover

The logistical arrangements are impressive. Over 1000 kilometres of

t frns

certain circles, there are all the indications that it could be a tussle. "Advice to journalists covering the

fñE Ë ütrT AÌTßT iMG D TIE]O;G 'la¡f.¡D.lrll¡f' ¡lDDf t lIIft

Nå

EOUßB GADÜ ßßTN

SGG

been billed as the media event of the century, but those involved

an Empire in Êine form.

28 JUNE

By Nic Tlrrner

Handover is that they should sharpen their elbows because it is going to be very crowded," says Bob Howlett,

There will be two sittings for this pré-handover luncheon: One starting af 1,1,:30 am for eailier risers,and one at 1:30 pm for the patty animal brunch set. A sumpluous colonialmenuwill be accompaniedbymusic to lull cares away one last time under the Union Jack. HK$lso per person.

Government Information Services (GIS) spokesman for the Chief Executive's office.

At last count nearly

8,000 journalists, about 2,000 of them Hong

Kong-based, had applied for

accreditation. Howlett estimates that 2,000 willbe actuallyfiling stories

only

or reporting live. The rest will

Extravaganza. The Main Dining Room will be the scene of an'r yourfavourite tipple - all accompanied try alive jazzensemble. Inclusive price for the evening is HK$1841 per çôþlq the dining room will be turned on prior to midnig/t. Meanwhile, mayhem will ensue down in the mistakenly left off the guest list at the Con

TV screens while sipping their favourite libati

nt and creative East meets ìØest meal served with s and guests are encouraged to dress in RED. L! per person (valid until 2:00 am).TV screens in

those Club members and their guests who were r flies will be able to view the proceedings on large ndover bar menu will be available throughout the

evenlng.

OPEN ALL I\IGHT! A special Handover breakfast

will be served in the Main Dining Room starting at3ß0 am.

FOR RESERVATIONS PLEASE CALL SARAH AT 2521. T511 OR FA)( 2898 4092 A three in one package for all three parlies is available. fil<ç3297 per couple and Hf$1597 per person. This offer is subject to confirmation by the FCC.

technical crew and contingency staff. Some local papers, for instance, have applied for accreditation on behalf of their entire newsdesk - just in case. Applications for accreditation are currently being reviewed bythe Hong Kong securiry branch before being

approved. Accredited journalists

shouldbe invitedto collecttheirpapers and badges by earþJune. As regards laIe applicafions, Shirley \Øong from the Accreditation Office says: "'W'e are trying to maintain flexibility on this

question. 'W'e understand l.haf organisations may need to change personnel, and we will accommodate them as long as they provide sound reasons." By 15June the Press and Broadcast Centre (PBC) will be up and running on the 7th floor of the Convention Centre. This $8.5m playpen contains high-tech solutions for modern journalists spread

over L00,000 square feet. Facilities

rst-come-fi rst-served basis.

wiring and fibre optic cables will distribute signals, including govemment

provided footage from a numbër of

scenic sites around the territory,

Development Council and the Tourist Association will have booths at the PBC, while a Z4-hour desk will be manned by GIS information officers.

Jonathan Lange, chief information officer for the Handover Ceremony Coordination Office, knows that the

Job of providing for the needs and whims of journalists is no easytask. "It may well prove to be a difficult assignment because of the limitations

Space restrictions raaean tfl.at onl;z a. trandft l of thre arrrassed rnedia xzill be present at tkre defining rnonaents of thre Handorzer ttre rest qzill l>e s¡atcLring it on telerzision along q¡itLr tFre rest of thre vrrodd

ofspace," he concedes, "butitshould still be fairly interesting. 'lØe're doing the best we can to cater to everyone 's needs, but even so there are bound to be complaints." Space restrictions mean that only a handful of the amassed media will be present at the defining moments

of the Handover. The rest will be watching it on television along with the rest of the wodd. In the Grand

Hall of the barely completed Convention Centre extension, where the flag changing ceremony will take

place at midnight on June 30, there are only 2,000 seats. The media will be assigned 400 of these by pooling. At the East Tamar site, where a concert will see the British forces out of Hong

including Government House, the

Kong on the afternoon of the 30th,

Wanchai ferry pier and the Peak.

there is more space, with 1,000 of the 1 0, 000 seats earmarked for the press-

HongKong Telecom, which is providing the phone system, will be renting and sellingcell-phones, pagers and phone cards. The Post Office will provide postal and express services, while photo-processing will be offered by Fuji. A food and beverage centre will provide beer andfood around the clock, but the first aid centre will only deal with emergencies so journalists

againby supplementary pooling. John Schidlovsþ, director of the FreedomForumAsia Centre, says: "This is not a spontaneous story. It is all very predictable so itwill be easyfor outsiders to cover. Therewill justbe programmed ceremonial events, assuming nothing unexpected happens. China watchers will be keeping an eye on the minutiae, June 7997 TEE GORRlSPOlfIlDIlT

the line up and the protocol, but on the

whole it's going to be a very glitzy, telegenic event with made-for-TV images of flags, soldiers and ceremonies."

Coveringthe Handover shouid be

relatively easy for the media, says Mark Dailey of the Trade Development

Council which has nade

special

arrangements for journalists including

fast-track web site offering vital

information. "Technically and logisticaliy speaking, the arrangements are very good, the trick is getting them to feel that they have something the

other 8,000 journalists don't." A commonly expressed fear in official circles is the spectacle of a bunch of bored journalists giving stones to little boys to throw at the police . According to one official, "the biggest problemwill be

keeping journalists within the carefully

planned confines

of the media

affangements. The buggers just won t go where they're told to - they

allwanta

better story than the next guy." To keep this scenario atbay, GIS is arranging diversionary briefings and outings. Organised press briefings will explain Hong Kong's future to those

journalists who haven't done their homework, while outings to Chek Lap Kok and other sites will be laid on. It should be almost impossible for visiting journalists to feel under-briefed,

although they may grumble about being overloaded. The GIS press kit contains detailed maps of the Convention Centre area, the entire text of theJointDeclaration and Basic Law, as well as selected government fact sheets. The TouristAssociation is giving

away maps, publications and 240 selected images of Hong Kong on CDROM, the Trade Development Council

kit contains

business briefs and contacts, while the FCC media handbook contains a wealth of information and contact numbers not covered by other sources. The government press centre will be running around the clock to keep up

with the inundation of requests for interviews with top government officials. These have been coming thick

and fast for some time, Schidlovsþ says he has been getting daily requests

for months from journalists looking for

story ideas and help in getting interviews. There are the usual suspects TEE CORRf,SPOIì|IIDNT Tune 1997

Lee for instance could give a

-Martin press conference

every hour from the amount of requests there are. To ease the congestion the FCC is arranging daily press briefings where r^nge of speakers of all political

^ including the usual persuasions, suspects, will put themselves up for a grilling. In conjunction with the Freedom Forum there will be daily lunches at the Grand Hyatt with panel discussions focusing on the future of the media in Hong Kong. Those seeking business related interviews can approachuthe Trade Development Council which has arranged channels for press conferences and interviews with various levels of the business

Tl-re FCC t>riefings x.ill be open t<> a.ll, but tl e Grand HYatt 1>anel discussiorìs are b¡z invitation onl;z t>ecause of securit¡z cc)ncefns. community. The FCC briefings will be open to all, but the Grand Hyatt panel

discussions are

by invitation only

because of security concerns. As the occasion demands, securitywill be tight. Because of the many heads of state and MPs, there is going to be a very Iatge

securiry presence, and

of course in

Hong Kong, this is the first time so there are no ground r-ules and no precedents, says Howlett, hinting that there may be more police than journalists. Accredited journalists will be

allowed access to the Convention Centre and surrounding areas, butwith certain restrictions. The entire area, encompassing the Grand HYatt, the New $7orld Harbour View and surrounding office buildings will be cordoned off under strict security provided by the Securiry Branch, who will sweep through the Convention Centre Extension a few daYs before the ceremony. Once sterilized it will be sealed off until the big night. How close news hounds will get to the VIPs is still up for grabs. The

Grand Hyatt insists that it is open for business during the period, even though its securily arrangements have been handed over to the Security Branchwhose VIP escorts will search anyone entering the hotel premises. Grace Ng of the hotel's public relations

department says that journalists are welcome to use the hotel's facilities but anyone who transgresses securify protocol will be evicted promptly, and no photographs may be taken inside the hotel. ''We want to be flexible, but if guests complain then action will be

taken', she

says.

Concerned that the Handover could generate negative images ofthe territory,

HongKong's publicrtymachine has been

sending optimistic messages abroad.

Joining the The Better Hong Kong Foundation in this venture is Ted Thomas's Advance Hong Kong foundation which plans to hire local joumalists to travelabroadto spread the

news that Hong Kong is open for business now, during and after the Handover. The Tourist Association is launching a campaign, 100 Days of 'Wonder, to reinforce the message.

Knowing |hat

journalists sometimes like a drink or Nvo, the launch of one aspect of the promotion has been moved for-ward to June L5. Visiting and local hacks can take advantage of the'Wonder Drinks being offered by participating hotels. At only

679.97, these specially designed cocktails may just be the best hangover

bargain going.

The FCC's entertainment

committee has lined up a week of carousing while spectacular balls and parties are planned throughout Hong Kong for the duration. A few to watch will be the Regent hotel on the 30th,

where the colonial decor will be ripped out and replaced with a Chinese theme at the stroke of midnight, the annual Tatler Ball at the Conrad onJune 2l whichpromises to be the last big socialite bash of the British colonial era , while the Press Ball atthe FuÍam ofi June L2is being

billed as the party of the year, for those left standing. The Unity bash

What's cooking? by Robin Lynam

ost active members of the FCC

will be aware by now that

plans tointlodnce an

goumet dining in Hong

Kong.

"I'm going to push seafood," Stephen. "You can get some

says

years, until the itch to move on sffuck him again. He and FCC manager Bob Sanders checked each other o't,

and despite reservations abogt workinginaclubenvironmentStephen

Stephen has had the benefit of instruction on'the onlywayto prepare Chili Con Carne' from five different members with five different recipes. "I don't know much about the history of how long dishes have been here and to be honest I'm quite glad I don'l because if I did it would limit what I can do. I'm sure within the next few months I'll understand more of what some things mean to different people. I think we can all have some good food here and I can have fun in the confines ofwhat's

great fish here - basically the imported stuff - and fish is a

great medium to work with.

It's fresh, it's clean, it

has great flavour, it's healthy, it's got everything thatyou need.

set

out,"

Stephen

comments.

The restaurant is nol going to be totally fish but it's going to lean that way."

He is reluctanl to give

his style a label, but describes his cuisine as the result of a lot of intelnational

Having won good reviews for his çooking at restauranl-s in

influences with

foundation of classical French training. "I love Indian and I love Thai.

Norlhamptonshire, Stephen first made his mark before movingto theHellidonLakes

Italian and Spanish have had

inOxfordshirewherehe had F a big influence for most of the freedom to really put his \ my life. lr'll be own stamp on the foocl. : Mediterranean Asian if I The new Main Dining rs have to put a sffle on it but u,torlz in tbe'Wanchai marleet Room nrenu will build on FCCcbef SteueWarren if you looked at the menu the work Stephen did during you probably wouldn't say this period of his career as well as decided that there was a chalienge that. You're never going to keep reflecting the way his cooking has everybody huppy. I thinkwhatwe can here worth taking on. evolved since coming to Asia, a move "I want a little bit of me in the do is prodr-rce good food and I think he made after a financially rewalding people will acceptwhatwe do as long cooking. That's the mainreasonl came but creatively unstimulating stint in a as s/e can do that." here. Of course everyone's got their larger hotel. "I phoned up an agency So far so good. The quality of the favoulites, so it can be difficult to and said 'excuse me, I want an change menus. You do need to get ingredients used in the kitchen has interesting job' and they sent me to been significantly raised - most are jet involved with the people that you're Hong Kong," says Stephen. His sojourn in the territory did not get off to a good start. The \Øaterside

Inn at Discovery Bay had

been

described to him as a220 seaterL;atte

cuisine restaurant with 12 qualified chefs. His own impression of il was

logistics have been reinstated, and

entirelynewmenu for two

the Main Dining Room designed to put the FCC seriously on the map for

in Kowloon Bay onJune 28 may give

earphones.

been dlopped for reasons of kitchen

hamburgers ancl pizzas. After nine months he deciciecl he

some dramatic improvements have been made to the food seled in the couldtakenomoleanclaccepteda job Main Rar. Phase two of the process attheCenturyHotelin\Øanchaiwhich begins in earlyJuly when tire Club's alloweclhimgreaterscopeforcreative newchef, EnglishmanStephen'ùØarren, expression. He settled into the hotel

featuring Boy George and GraceJones

the world an indication that Hong Kong can, indeed, party without

particularly happy cooking

different, and notwithstanding

goocl

remuneration package he was not

cooking for." You can't please all of the people all of the time, but praise for the new

Main Bar rnenu has been all but unanimous. Stephen makes a point of being seen around the club and dialogr-re between chef and membership has proven nseful. Some of the popular Asian dishes that had

fresh although Stephen does buy some root vegetables in the local market -

and the level of creativity is without doubt the highest we have ever had. 'Víe can all expect a little more of the r-rnexpected, and a new columnin Tbe C one sp o n d erzlby Stephen \Øarren will

keep us up to date on news from the kitchen. Bon appetit. I@ June 1997

lEE

CORRISPOilIIENT

Jennifer Bowskill

Neil Farrin

Richard Dobson

Bob Davis

Hong Kong 'A moment

Kees Metselaar

in historlr' An exhibition of photographs of Hong Kong by FCC photojournalists FCC

TIE

Main Bar, June

CORRDSPOIIIIยกEI{T Tune 1997

Rob lvlountfotl

1.5 - July 15

June7997 TtrE GoRRDSPoilIยกENI

Ray Cnnbourne

Terry Duckham

Sponsored by

@ i,'åiHffiffiî.:J.-'

The

Econom

TEE CORRf,SP0I\I¡IDNT Tune 1997

June7997 TEE CORRXSPOI|IIENT

Mission to Macarr

Ê È 's

Tl-re veÐ,z finest of tl-re FCC's neq¡sl-rounds errrt>arked on a fact - finding <>f Iúa.caur during I\Lay. Stefan R-eisner repo+-ts

Á I I

here is always a good leason to visit Macau; the c.livertimento of

wine and sardines or the homesickness

of a European in search of

the

And thus a hard-headed team of dozen international reporters -- from PeterAchten from Swiss Radio to Kieu Tinh of the Vietnam News almost

incomparable saudade that the

Agency -- was rcady and willing to

Portuguese so like to nurtlue. Although the sound of the faclo

not as black as in Lisbon, Macau still retains some of the charm and colour of the oldest western pied 'a terre on

seek out some good news. Dr Antonio Salavessa da Costa, Macau's secretàry for communication, culture andtourism, is the rightmanto deliver a positive message. To describe Macau as a "dangerous pavementrr, he

the China Coast.

says, would

seldom heard there and the coffee is

be out of proportion.

But the invitation from the Macau Government and Tourist

Macau was

because Macau's dominant

Saløuessa

da Costa, Secreta.ry of Communication,

Culture and Tourism

industries are gambling and the horse racing that brings in millions of people and billions of dollars. Human vices must be organised and disorder' is the last thing any business wants. As

every govefnment knows, there is nothingworse than disorganised crime. Think of Moscow. The Macau govemment had also received a warning from Beijing that it was upset to see the achievements of lhe Chinese people overshadowed by such disturbances. Thus the public relations blitz to repolish the image.

Îf,l

and weapons. The biggest fear is that the recent negative news could have a long-term

effect on a hard-working tourism industry, which lastyear attracted8.1,51,

million visitors to Macau. The government is heavily promoting tourism to overcome the enclave's

dependence on the gambling business. In fact, spending on

links

international limelight recently thanks to a wave of gangland killings. Not only did rival triads kill each other; women, children $ and a police ollicial were also ! viciously attacked. I guess it w-as

A raw nefve was struck

effectively control the influx of felons

2 million passengers and new

Macau moved into the

the firsttime that CNN took much notice of the tiny territory.

Crisis talks are under way with the

authorities of Zhuhai to more

Macau's new airporthas received

altruistic.

G0RRXSpOilDElfT June 1997

mainly to Asian

destinations -- are planned. Air Macau has ordered several new ahcraft. A planned direct ferry link from Macau airport to Hong Kong will boost competition with the Chek Lap Kok mega project. Macau, Salavessa claims, is rcally a haven of tolerance and racial harmony. It has been 450 years since the first Portuguese sailors, soldiers and missionaries

Macau can still boast a lower murder rate than in Washington D.C. The

recent burst of criminal activiry by

landed in Macau. Political relations with China are not as rocky as those of the British in Hong Kong. Indeed,

helped by an all-too-permeable border

talks with China on the transition are running smoothly. To further improve its marketing and press relations, the Macau government is to open an office

with China.

in Hong Kong, conveniently around

Organised crime, says Salavessa, is concentrated within a small section

the corner from the FCC.

triads fighting to control the gambling

business after the change of sovereignty in late 1999 has been

of the communicy and does not affect the everyday life of citizens orvisitors.

Nor does it ieopardize public safety.

È '=

Since opening last year,

not altogether

toLrr

infrastructure, culture and the arts has never been so high.

Office to the FCC's correspondents and journalists to enjoy the virtues

'ùØarren

Rooke, a veteran member of the FCC, will be in charge. Having received the good news, the FCC press party was taken to the

aI È Ê Clockwße from top left: Saul Loclzban tukes tbe Macau Grand Prix simulatorfor a rid.e; Hahn Young-Joon of Cbosun llbo, Allen Tien-Jen Cheng of Asia, Inc , and Møn Chi lYong of Metro 'Wine Broaclcast in A-h4A Temple; a tour of tbe Museum is alwøys a good iclea beþre dinner; Hu uan Es, Saul lockhan and Stefan Reisner learn thefine points of Macanese a.rchitecture

new Convention Centerwhich houses

those most lemarkable of conselvatories of e-ngineering and good taste: the Grand Prix Museum

day, Luis Durao, city planner and architect, explained the work of

and the'SØine Museum. The FCCwas given a free ride and then a treat. The free ride was enjoyed

restoration and conserwation. Durao is a man who must balance and suffer the contradicting demands of the developers and the restorers. In recent years Macau has

in the Grand Prix Museum's Virtual Simulators where the courageous travel at highly dangeror-rs speeds over the Macau Ghia Circuit. Director Dantas Guimaraes gave the crash

undertaken huge land reclamation and vast tracts of newbuildings have been laid out. On the other side of the coin, enormous efforts have been made to restore some of the old buildings and

instnrctions.

to save at least the facades when

It was only a few steps for

the

interiors must be renewed.

survivors of the Grand Prix mayhem to the more sedate'ùØine Museum. It is here that Portugal passes on the glorious traditions of Douro and Dao.

Unlike in Hong Kong, Macau's architectural heritage -- from the s è baroque manuelismo to the art deco '=

These are lessons that should be learned as quickly as possible by the Great rùØa1l winery to the north of the

create a firm foundation for a future tourist boom. Nevertheless, there are also plans for new amusemenl parks

border.

which will be anathema to those

In the rùØine Museum, all

the

visitors admitted that those pouring the drinks shouldbe giventhe highest ratings for hospitality. Not only the overworked media enjoyed the treat but evidently our busy hosts too. To undedine Macau's clain to be a haven of cultural heritage the next

of the 1930s -- is honoured. This could

cultural achievements. To illustrate the frictions beñveen the culture and commerce one has only to walk along the Praia Grande which was one of the most beautiful promenades of the East and has now been developed to death.

'!Øhile we discussed these topics

and the more philosophical issues of the Macanese soul with architect Durao

the rain drove us to the terrace of the Bela Vista hotel. This fine building is to be transformed into the Portuguese Consulate after 1999. Even in Macau things are changing. Steføn Reisner is a correspondent

for tbe Die Woche IIamburg. June

newspaper in

Tlte Carlsberg

croud: not

too bo| for golf'

Carls b e r g M e dia Clas s ic ft',. year"s CallsbcrÉ4 t()urn:uìlcnt I 1,,.,lk tlte ttstrll fol'tn¿lt - scrllllblc on day one, individual stableford on day tn'o - although the FCC contingent

u'as in tl-re n-rinority, lrany legttlars were unable to rlake it to Canh-rbang tl'ris tirne.

in total there were 36 golfels,

including Ron Fitzpatrick up from Ar-rstlalia, John Handley, all the way from New Ze aland, and a Iarge number

from Thailand, including Gerhard Kropp, manager of the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza, and John Lenaghan, while Philippine residents Alan Brooks,

Dave Hodges and Geoff Stammers also joined the fray.

Glorious weather - a little too hot for golf on the Friday - a challenging and well maintained course, good company and, of colÌrse, r-rnlimited

Carlsberg, macle for an excellent two days. The scramble went to a team which

included Mike Howard and John Challesworth from Bangkok, ably supported by Dave Stewart and Alan Scott. Overall winner of the individual event s,'as Howard Mackay, of MTR,

The \Øanch and Carnegie's fame. Second place went to Gary Cooper from Thailand,

regular on this event,

while in thircl place was Hong Kong lawyer,

ilbert Coll ins.

Olhel awalds were; best front 9, John Lenaghan; best back 9, Jeff Fleselu,'oocl, John Charlesworth, Rìchard Chew (tie); nearest the pin hole 11, Peter' Williams; nearest the pin hole 15, David Hodges; longest drive 23 ancl uncler, Gary Cooper; longest clrive 24 and ol'er, Robin

'Delboy' Hughes; bestnetscore, David Stewart 75 on countback over Robin Hughes,/Gerhard Kropp; best gross score, Dave Hodges 81 on countback overJohn Lenaghan; The Chariesworth Award (unusual shot), Mallyn Stewart; last man on bus, Gilbert 'NlcDonald' Collins; The Ray Millarcl Award, Jim Gilchrist. Duling the prize giving ceremony a

large toastwas made to Charlie Smith

who passed away ancl is now in the big golf coulse in the sky. Charlie was a regular at the Classic. Thanks must go to Julian !7alsh for organising matters as far as the Club was conceLned, but a big thank yoLl to Derek Currie of Carlsberg for

putting on what

mr-rst be considerecl the goif tolrrnament of the year.

Clocleuise front. top left: Cbico Loyzaga, Dauicl Hoclges, Jobn Lenagban and Dereþ Ctr.rrie; maximum concentrcrtionfor tbe cadd.ies putting competiton; John lenaghan ancl caclcly; Robin Moyer and Ray D6ty; Julictn \Yalsb and Derek Currie u,ftb rbe Cadd.ies Contest winner; [bis year's uinne4 Hotuard Mackay, teceiues tbe tropbyJrom Carlsberg's Derek Ctutie; C)scar Conlgan

demonstrates bis

fotnt June1997 THE CORRISP0IIIIENT

Divefr. alert! o

Vords by Karin Malmström Photographs by Terry Duckham and l(arin Malmström

uerto Galera, Philippines was the scene ofa recent three-day liquid

kidnapping where seven Diversion Society mernbers bravely entrusted their long weekend to Terry Duckham. Throughout ttre process of getting to onr destination, we all scratched our heads wondering when the travel arrarìgements would hit a snag.

After all, we were transferring from

pool, a stroll along the beach or exploration of tiny Puerto Galera town were just what the doctor ordered. Diving was varied and superb, with up to four dives a day and over two dozen unspoiled dive sites to choose from. Some of us had to earn our land

liquids through hard submersible labour. Fins were dipped into trumpet fish-infested caves, small holes in rocks

were

the late flight to Manila, to a Nvo hour bus ride to meet a

'banca'outrigger boat - for

wriggled

embarkedon'sub-diversions' fromthe stamp-sized port. A surwey of Duckham's'kingdom' was in order. From high above Puerto

Galera at the Ponderosa Golf Club, a tipple and an astonishing view of the area while Terry pointed out the location of a guest house he threatens to build for all FCC members. Paul Bayfield, trLre to form, found a sail boat - the Zest - whose capf^in welcomed us aboard fora brilliant day we enjoyed

through (no )O(L

of fresh breezes and

here) with

of our boat but missed catching it himself as she picked up speed into

the channel. Instead, he descended upon the

nightchannel crossing from Batangas. The

glitches did

not

Puerto

happen.

GaleraYacht

Club to discuss

Due to smooth

onnections and. ample Bix La Lagtnta beach supplies of liquid refreshments

polsonous

strategically placed on all methods of transport, we found ourselves laryely unruffled and well lubricated by the

scorpion fish were playfully

time we made a stealth anival at EI Galleon on Small Laguna Beach at 2:30 am. The Point Bar- well known in the area for its breezy location and easy hours was opened especially for our group for a wee hour cap before we turned in to our cozy bungalows.

annoyed -

The next morning - and most following ones - came too soon. Nevertheless, waking up in paradise had its redeeming qualities, even through fuzzy vision and garbled

thoughts. For some of our group, a cure was soon found at the five-star PADI dive shop situated directly beneath the Point Bar. For others, a wallow in the

camaraderi.e.

Duckham, true to form, shot pictures

reciprocal club rights

over San Miguels. Duckham

View ouer Pueno GalerøJiom tbe

all for the whim of Duckham's underwater lens. Modelling'fees' have subsequently

Counny

managed to

catch

escalated to reflect high risk conditions, The entire area of Puerto Galera both above and below the waves - is a

with the boat at her lagun a atchorage just in time for sunset cocktails - and to abscond with the Zest's captain and first mate for dinner followed by ahazy game of pool at Small Laguna

natural sanctuary which teems with

Clockwise

Jront top leJt: Sttnset ouer Boquete Island; Coral and reef

Beach.

wildlife, harbours pristine aquatic

After three full days of sun-

fisb øt tbe 'Hole in tbe \X/all'; At rest d.fter ø bard. d.ay's sailing; Robit't lltnam discusses d.iuing d.ynantics witb Terry Duckbam

ecosystems and offers 'wake-up call' blinding green landscapes. \Ve imagined the gaileons of 400 years ago easing their way up the narrow,

drenched, liquid-logged amusement, we reluctantly made our way back to

wbile Robitt's instructor keeps afirm grip on tbe situøtion; Some oJ' the creu witb Swedisb diue-master; Hong Kong yøcbt Zest sails out the Manila Chanttel.from Pttefio Galetø

quirþ

Puerto Galera town lies nestled among

months? One thing is for sure, Puerto Galera has priority on our revisitation

a tangle of mangroves. Some of us

list.

sea passage to the laguna

where

all things concrete. rùØas the trip three days, or had it lasted three

June1997 rHÍ

CORRESPOIYDÍI|T

China after Mao A. stunning

collection of t>la,ck and xzhite ima-ges of Cl-rina b¡z Lir-r Her.ng SLring

ery much a coffee-table tome,'China after Mao' is also a book for serious collectors interested in a quality pictorial of mainland China. Published by M. Photo, it is a collection of photographs by Pulitzer prize winner' Liu Heung Shing, lirst published in 1983. Liu was stationed in China for eight years, working initially for Time and subsequently for AP. His photographs reflect the dramatic developments of the time. This book is worthy of a place on any China-watcher's bookshelf. M. Photo is generousÌy offering a discount to members and' China afterMao'will shortly be available at reception, priced }{KIì277.

Maq Sichuan, 19BO; Coca Cola- Feel tbe tctstel Inxþerial Place, Beiiing, 1981; a music professor ønd professional poianist .þom the USA- hc¡ld 6tn impromþtu jazz session in a

Opposite pclge left to rigbt: Peasant, rice, sboes ønd.

Visiting

jazz musicians

dormitoty

ctf tbe

Beijing conseruatoty, 1981

Clockuisefrom toþ left: People's Liberation Army soldierc, Beijíng, 1982; Wang Keping, afonner Red Guard, demonsh'ates uitb 'Workers- Beijing Petrol Refinery, 1980. banner callingfor artisticfreedorn, Beijing, 1979; Mao on tbe moue, 1981;

@ fH[

G0RRf,SPONIIDIIT Tune 1997

June

1997

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THÉ C0RRf,SP0NDXI{I June 1997

35lh Floor, Windsor House, Direcl: (852) 2894

Mobile: 9438

3ll

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t-moil:

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Joan Boivin Photography GOLDPHOTO LTD,

Advertising, Portrait, Corporate, Still-life l7 Old Bailey St., lÆ, Central, Hong Kong Tel: 2530-48121 2541-6300 Fax: 2536 4214 Mobile: 90995056

Paul J. Hicks @ Associates Ltd. Commu rucati ons 5et vices

Smart, young consultancy for editorial, supplements and the full range of PR services. Currently specialising in travel and high tech areas - but we can handle anything. Call Paul hicks on 2804 1925 or fax2804 1975

E-mail: pjha

asiaonline.net

Special Offer for FCC Members and Visiting Journalists l57o discount with regular or guest FCC card 2-5 p.m., Monday-Saturday, throughout June ønd

July

Late-night deliveries Jun e 29-30 Contact Barry Kalb, fax 2959-0550

Atl day, every day: authentic Italian food, gourmet pizzas, frne ltalian wines 34-36 D'Aguilør Street, Lan Kwøi Fong Tel2868-3068 Fax2537-7304 June 1997 rHD

CORRESPOIì|IIHì|T

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tr p,,r,

HAIR

FACE

IO/F, CODA PLAZA,

NAILS

FREE LUNCH

Residential

The Correspondent requires freelance writers and photographers to cover the Club's lunch and

GARDEN ROAD, HONG KONG TELEPHONE:2525 6696 FAX: 281 6 2730

Contact Simon Twiston Davies at29821853 or fax 2982 1257

TRAVEL NETWORK LTD.

tsALT ARTWORI<S

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Call Soni 90828097

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Group Public Affairs Media Enquiries

amù Ç ørd*,w R

We meet informally, usually on the f¡rst Wednesday of each month, at the Foreign Conespondents' Club, 2 Lower Albed Road, Central, 6-Bpm. All women interested in the publishing industry welcome -- contact us for further details

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Room 307, Yu Yuet Lai Building, 43-44 Wyndham Sfteet, Central Tel: (852) 2869-1862 Fax: (852) 2536-4244

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Beal PeoRle

Beal lun

PROFESSIONAL CONTACTS The Professional Contacts page appears every month in The Correspondent and on the FCC Correspondent web site at >http://www.fcchk.org < . Let the world know who you are, what you do and how to reach you. There has never been a better time. Listings start at just $100 per month, with a minimum of a six month listing, and are billed monthly to your FCC account. copy

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For more information telephone 25'72 9544 or fax 2575 8600

TED CORRf,SPOI|IIDNT

lune 1997

June 1997 TEE GORRISP0I|IIENT

pick up your FCC book orders! Please

Some members who have orderecl and paid for their copies of Eyewitness on Asia have yet to pick them up.

They are taking up valuable space in the office.

Don't shoot, I'm only the piano player \Øell worth listening to over the hum of conversation in the bar is the new occupant of LarryAllen's old piano stool. Allen Youngblood is one c¡f the finest jazz pianists in Asia and has played wìth some of the biggest names in the business. Expect somefrne jazzand blues performances, and do not ask him to play Tie a Yellou Ribbon. The r-rsual suspects have threatened to sit in.

... ar¡d in the winnef's circle Newly electedmembers to the FCC Board of Governors SimonTwislon Davies, Mike Smith, Club president Keith Richburg, second vice-president Karin Malmström, Robin Lynam and Hubert van Es celebrate victory, in what was one of the FCC's most fielcely contested elections. (For the full list of the new Board of Governors see page 5).

It's a tough job

Fírst to thebar

Retiring Club president John Giannini, Club managel Bob Sanders and, she of Entertainment and F & B, Karin Malmström conducted a tasting of club wines

Iefi: Bøsil Pao andfriends Toþ: Tbe ercbibition attracted quite a

t^_ Toþ Former Club presiclent Peter Siedlitz, fresb from

Beijing, bc¡lds court at the Main Bar on one of his frequent uisiß ro fue FCC Rigbt; Veteran pbotograpber Dauid Burnett on a uisit to Hong KongforBusiness Week met uþ uitb a couþle of

CORRXSPOilDEI|T

Around the Wodd in 88 Frames '

An exhibition of more than a decade of travel photography by FCC member Basil Pao was held at Park Pacific Place in May. The exhibition was sponsored bl Hang Seng Bank.

,eolrrt¡

Photographs by Ron McMlllan

old cronies

lEE

gatbering of FCC þhotograpberc

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1Ç97

Jtne 199f THE

CoRRDSPOilIIDNT

A montbly þortrøùt of lfong l(ong irrepløceøbles Local Needs. Local Response. Supportlng education. Protecting the environment Providing young people with cultural and recreational

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