Benedict Rogers: Red capital killing off freedoms in Hong Kong
As Beijing’s rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC), begins its annual session today, Hong Kong is bracing itself for yet more repressive edicts at the end of a week that began with 47 pro-democracy activists charged under the National Security Law simply for having held a primary election last July. That draconian law, expedited through last year’s NPC and imposed on Hong Kong without any scrutiny, debate or transparency, itself dismantled basic freedoms – but now the regime is expected to go even further, with changes to election laws and oath-taking that could see district councilors, the city’s only remaining pro-democracy representatives in office, disqualified and a truly one party state imposed.
The speed at which Hong Kong’s freedoms and autonomy have been destroyed is shocking. And yet, it did not happen overnight. The warning signs, the steady erosion, emerged throughout the past decade, and the underlying economic influence which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has exerted for longer than that paved the way for the repression we see today. As a new report launched yesterday by Hong Kong Watch illustrates, the role of “red capital” – financial influence linked to the regime’s interests – has been overlooked for too long. It lies at the root of the CCP’s total takeover of the city.
‘Red capital’ has been pervasive in its effect, silencing ordinary bank employees, neutering the political influence of local tycoons, undermining anti-corruption drives and extending CCP cells throughout Hong Kong. But if there is one freedom which red capital has been especially pernicious in undermining, it is media freedom.
Freedom of the press is especially dear to my heart, having begun my career as a journalist in Hong Kong. When I worked in the city – first for a small business journal called China Staff, published by a division of Euromoney/Institutional Investor and then as the leader writer on the Hong Kong iMail for its brief existence – media freedom was, by and large, alive and well, although in my final months I saw ominous signs of pressure when the newspaper I worked for was bought by pro-Beijing tycoon Charles Ho.
But ever since the protests against the anti-subversion law in 2003 – a year after I left – Beijing worked out a plan to reduce the influence of local businesses who opposed such legislation. That year contained a cocktail which sounds all too familiar: a coronavirus (in the form of SARS), an anti-subversion law and mass protests. The regime responded to popular pressure and shelved the proposed law. By the time the cocktail was repeated in 2020, Beijing was ready to override popular resistance and ram the bill through. Part of the reason it has been able to do this is due to the flow of red capital into Hong Kong in the intervening years. And one of the focuses of Beijing’s attention in the deployment of red capital has been the media.
In its 2017 Annual Report, the Hong Kong Journalists Association claimed that 35% of traditional Hong Kong media outlets had major mainland Chinese stakeholders. This was part of the CCP’s global propaganda plan, to pump billions of yuan into what it termed “media warfare”, purchasing or influencing media outlets around the world in order to co-opt them into CCP mouthpieces. In Hong Kong it has pursued this with great success, turning a sector that was predominantly sympathetic to democracy into one that is increasingly ‘blue’ – i.e. pro-establishment – or even ‘red’, allied to the regime. Most media organizations in Hong Kong are now owned by proprietors with extensive business interests in mainland China.
Those with deep ties to the CCP include Ta Kung Pao, Wen Wei Po and obviously China Daily, but in recent years – due to the influence of red capital – the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong Commercial Daily, Sing Pao, Phoenix Satellite Television, Television Broadcasts (TVB), iCable News and Sing Tao have been bought out by pro-Beijing interests too. There has been a similar growth in pro-CCP online media platforms too. Sadly, it now looks as though Hong Kong’s public service broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) may be moving in the same direction, with the decision to strip presenter Nabela Qoser of her civil service contract for her tough questioning of government officials, the ban on broadcasting BBC programmes and the resignation of senior employees in the face of criticism from Beijing. The decision to appoint a former Deputy Secretary for Home Affairs, Patrick Li, who has no previous broadcasting experience, to oversee RTHK is concerning.
And for those media that Beijing couldn’t or didn’t choose to use its purchasing power to coerce, the regime has deployed advertising boycotts as a way to try to silence critical voices in the media. By leaning on brands and corporations with big interests in China to urge them not to advertise in certain media outlets, Beijing extended its tentacles further into Hong Kong. And where that didn’t work, it resorted to litigation and physical intimidation.
Of course this great publication, the Apple Daily, has experienced this more than most, and it is only thanks to the brave, principled leadership of Jimmy Lai, now facing many years in prison under the National Security Law, and the courage of its reporters and editors that it has not buckled. The support of its readers – by continuing to buy the newspaper and boost its stock price – is an indicator of how important it is as the last bastion of independent press in Hong Kong. But this inspiring commitment to principle has come at a high price.
When we think of threats to press freedom, we think of reporters being beaten, pepper-sprayed, tear-gassed or arrested. And certainly, as a former journalist in Hong Kong myself, when such incidents happen I feel outrage. But an even greater danger to media freedom is the financial pressure exerted through red capital, combined with litigation designed to stifle dissent and encourage self-censorship. It lies at the heart of the CCP’s strategy to kill off freedom itself in Hong Kong, it serves as a reminder for those still standing for media freedom to hold out as long as possible, and it offers a stark warning to the rest of the world of the dangers of ‘red capital’.
Benedict Rogers is co-founder and Chief Executive of Hong Kong Watch. This article was published in Apple Daily on 5 March 2021. (Photo: Apple Daily)