Radio Television Hong Kong is no stranger to controversy. The government-funded station produces some of the territory's most popular media offerings, including boisterous call-in sessions and confrontational talk shows. But in early March the debates stepped off the airwaves and into the hallowed hall of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)in Beijing. There, veteran member Xu Simin lashed out, a RTHK as "a remnant of British rule," and called one of its programs "monstrous," Furthermore, he said, Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa had been "completely helpless" in disciplining the wayward station.
Xu's words at the annual parliamentary meeting in Beijing brewed up a storm down in Hong Kong, one of the few public clashes over the territory's governance since its July 1997 transfer to Chinese sovereignty. Chief Secretary Anson Chan, the special administrative region's highest-ranking bureaucrat, stated emphatically that the criticism voiced in Beijing by Xu, a long-time deputy from Hong Kong, gave "a very wrong impression that there is an attempt to invite the central government to interfere in the affairs of the SAR". For his part, Tung waited to return from Beijing before resolutely reaffirming the station's editorial independence, adding that "we will deal with RTHK, if there's any need in Hong Kong."
Indeed, the furor wasn't so much over what Xu said, but where he said it. To a Hong Kong hypersensitive to Big Brother's presence across the border, the incident raised questions about China's hands-off policy towards the former British colony. It was perhaps to allay those fears that both Chinese President Jiang Zemin and CPPCC head Li Ruihuan moved quickly after Xu's remarks to warn Hong Kong deputies not to undermine the "one country, two systems" policy by commenting on SAR affairs.
Besides probing the shape of China's rule in Hong Kong, the RTHK controversy also tested Tung's agility in treading the fine line on "one country, two systems." According to Sonny Lio, an associate professor of political science at the University of Hong Kong, Tung's response to the latest dust-up seemed to "to strike a balance between the interests of Hong Kong and the interests of the pro-China elite."
Xu's denunciation of the station also raised the question of whether one country is big enough for two opposing views on public broadcasters. To those used to the tightly controlled state media in China, a government-funded station that provides a forum for opposition voice could seem not only absurd but dangerous.
"The whole thing I believe has been blown every much out of proportion," said Tsang Yok-sing, leader of the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong and a CPPCC member. Tsang, who left the hall before Xu made his now-famous remarks, said he has heard many similar complaints "and not only from the so-called traditional pro-Beijing elements."
