Arriving for a first-ever visit to China in 1973, I was chided by Ma over a promotional advertisement, which my employer ran in Editor & Publisher magazine, showing me standing on a Hong Kong hillside, a "China Watcher" supposedly looking across the closed border into China.
"We all wondered what you saw, looking across the border," said Ma, who is usually seen with an English-language book about China, written by a foreign author, under his arm. Now he will have the chance, to climb that hill at Lok Ma Chau and look back across the border himself to see what I saw.
Ma, now deputy director of the Information Office of the State Council which amounts to being China's image and public relations czar, began handling China's foreign affairs activities in Hong Kong starting July 1, 1997. Domestic responsibilities will belong to Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa and analysts are waiting to see if Tung reports to Ma or if they report separately to Beijing. Ma is considered likely to assume control of the Chinese Communist Party's heretofore clandestine Hong Kong and Macau Working Committee in the future.
After two years as Ambassador to Ghana, Ma headed the Information Department of the Foreign Ministry in 1984 to 1988, then became the first consul-general in Los Angeles. He earned the nickname "Hollywood Ma" among some Chinese-language tabloids for his fraternization with actress Shirley MacLaine and others of the film set who were early visitors to China.
Ma thus escaped the onus of the Tiananamen Square massacre, although he has been regarded as tough on internal liberalizations.
Ma's reputation as a troubleshooter, particularly among journalists, is matched by expressions that China should pay due respect to the British legacy in Hong Kong, definitely a minority view among Chinese officials. But his pragmatism wins praise from foreign businessmen.
In 1973, visiting Taiwan after a month's visit by plane and train to Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Xian. Hongzhou and Shanghai, I wrote that "Two of the more astute foreign press officers I have met were Fredrick Chien, Director General of the Government Information Office (GIO) of the Republic of China (still recognized at that time by that name by U.S.) in Taipei and Ma Yuzhen head of foreign press liaison in Beijing, People's Republic of China." I don't think either liked the idea of being mentioned in the same paragraph, although Chien reprinted my article in a book published in Taipei.
But both have gone on to play key roles for their governments, Chien as Foreign Minister and now as speaker of the National Assembly guiding constitutional reforms, and Ma attempting to keep both a low profile in and the lid on criticism of Hong Kong, as well as being the lead official responsible for Hong Kong's defense and foreign affairs. Under the Basic Law, the central government handles these portfolios for Hong Kong.
