Table 3 shows that Taiwan journalists tend to be very optimistic about the future of China's economic and political situations. In our sample, 84.2 percent of the respondents think China's economic situation will get better over the next ten years. Only 2.2 percent think China's economic situation will get worse. With regard to political situation 48.9 percent think China will get better and only 7.5 percent think it will get worse.
With regard to Taiwan, the respondents tend to be relatively optimistic about its political situation than its economic situation. In our sample, 26.3 percent of the respondents think Taiwan's economic situation will improve over the next ten years while 36.5 percent think it will get worse. As to political situation, 37.7 percent of the respondents think Taiwan will get better while 22.4 percent think it will get worse.
In comparison, Taiwan journalists tend to be pessimistic about the future of Hong Kong's economic and political situations. In our sample, only 16.7 percent of the respondents think Hong Kong's economic situation will improve over the next ten years while 38.8 percent think it will get worse. As to political situation, only 12.1 percent of the respondents think Hong Kong will improve over the next ten years and 50.3 percent think it will get worse.
It is apparent that Taiwan journalists were pessimistic about the future of Hong Kong's economic and political situations. The second hypothesis (H2) was also supported.
The main objective of the study was to compare how Taiwan and China newspapers reported the future of Hong Kong and its press freedom after the 1997 handover. As expected, the Taiwan newspapers differed sharply from the Chinese newspapers in their coverage of the Hong Kong handover.
Professor Lo said although the Taiwan newspapers were far more pessimistic about the future of Hong Kong than the China newspaper, their coverage was more balanced. Their coverage contained equal amount of optimistic and pessimistic stories and editorials about the future of Hong Kong and its press freedom. In contrast, the Chinese newspaper was very optimistic about the future of Hong Kong. For Chinese newspapers, the primary goal is to support and advance the policies of the government or serve as mouthpiece for the Communist Party.
"The newspaper's main concern was to 'orchestrate a national union through Hong Kong's return to China." (11) Therefore, Hong Kong was portrayed as having brighter prospect for the future. The People's Daily did not carry any pessimistic news about the future of Hong Kong and its press freedom.
Can Hong Kong maintain its remarkable press freedom after returning to China? From the views or standings of Taiwan journalist, as gauged by Professor Lo and colleagues, it is highly unlikely that Hong Kong's coveted freedom of the press will last into the next century. (12)
