May 31
All media, THREATENED
Lu Ping, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of China's State Council, in an interview with CNN said that when China assumes sovereignty over Hong Kong from Great Britain in July 1997, Hong Kong's media will not be allowed to advocate independence for Hong Kong or for Taiwan. In a speech at Japan's National Press Club on June 5, he said that press freedom would be guaranteed after the transfer of sovereignty, but he drew a distinction between reporting news and advocating action. "Advocating itself is not press freedom and is different from objective reporting," Lu said. China's information minister, Zheng Jianhui, echoed Lu's position in a July 11 interview with the Far Eastern Economic Review, and suggested that Hong Kong journalists follow the example of their mainland Chinese counterparts: "If [Taiwanese President] Lee Teng-hui stands up and says something, you can report it just like we do. As long as someone else says it, that's okay."

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October 16
All media, THREATENED
Chinese vice premier and foreign minister Qian Qichen, in an interview with the Asian Wall Street Journal, said that Hong Kong's media will not be allowed to print "rumors and lies" or personal attacks on Chinese leaders after China assumes sovereignty over Hong Kong in July 1997. Qian's remarks were echoed by a local Hong Kong Xinhua news agency official, Wen Xinqiao, who said on Oct. 21 that the Hong Kong media would not be allowed to publish reports on dissidents if the reports advocated opposition to the Chinese central government or the principle of "one country, two systems," or made personal attacks on Chinese leaders.

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