Hong Kong has been back under Peoples Republic China rule - under the "one country two systems" - for more than a year and a half now. Overall, even the British say that have been pleased, adding that things have been going even better than hoped. But is this really so? Only Chinese living in Hong Kong are qualified to comment." One writer, Clu Chun-Hung said:
"Recently the mainland's Central Ballet Company performed The Bed Detachment of Women in Hong Kong. The political orientation of this ballet is already incompatible with life in Mainland China itself, much less with Hong Kong. Officials in charge of broadcasting in Special Administrative Region have not kept careful watch over the gate of ideology. To allow this kind propaganda to be shown in Hong Kong is really a failure to fulfill their responsibilities, since it goes against Hong Kong's political traditions and against Beijing's own policies.
"It will be remembered that, less than six months after taking over Hong Kong, Beijing and its agencies in Hong Kong were touting the slogan 'prevent Hong Kong from being transformed into just another Chinese interior city,' so as to remove doubts about their sincerity to implement 'one country two systems. "This was admirable. But in this past year there have already been miscarriages of justice. It is a profound challenge to maintain Hong Kong 'unchanged for 50 years' (as the Basic Law promises). In only one year, much has already changed, enough to make those who are aware of the situation worried about the future." (3)
The other was Hong Kong China: The Red Dawn, edited by Chris Yeung, Political Editor of the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong's leading English-Language daily.
I met Vines early during his tenure as editor of the Eastern Express.
"We like your pieces on Japan," Vines said. "Keep giving us your best. We want the Express to make a mark in the region".
I had been writing political commentaries for the Express from Tokyo, having followed Foreign Editor Karl Wilson when he left the Sunday Standard. In May, June and July 1989, although my hands were full with Tiananmen Square crackdown and aftermath articles for my paper, The Washington Times, I managed to recycle some features, eyewitness reports and analysis to Wilson at the Standard.
This policy of allowing correspondents to write for papers outside our circulation area was one I had started during my term as Times Foreign Editor (1982-86), since we did not have out own news service at the time. Thus, my byline from Tiananamen turned up not only in Washington D.C., but Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, Johannesburg and San Francisco as well.
