This may be a unique war in the world today. Nowhere else could be found two such antagonistic groups of papers as exist side by side under law, while fighting desperately in words and headlines, for more than a decade In this colony of 400 square miles with three million inhabitants.
News which reaches Hongkong from inside the Bamboo Curtain is shaped into "bullets of evidence" to jab the Communist rulers in Peiping for their fanfare announcement of production goals, their failure of the commune system, and their highhanded policy toward the unhappy people. Free papers loudly declare that leaders of the Chinese Communists are but puppets of the Kremlin who have danced to Russian music ever since their seizure of the mainland.
The strategy of the Communist press is different. They let off an anti-US campaign denouncing every measure that the US has taken to alleviate the suffering of the freedom-loving Chinese people. They charge the US China policy as "interference" in the internal affairs of China. During President Eisenhower's Far Eastern visit last June, the campaign skyrocketed to new heights. The US President was denounced as "a thug", "a gangster" and "God of Plague." They try to entice the free Chinese into their trap of "peace" by declaring that they "sympathize" with the Chinese people in Taiwan for the latter's "being victimized by the US aggressive Far East policy."
English Papers Neutral
While the war between the free and Communist papers is raged daily around the clock, the English language newspapers, published in the same metropolis, stand by and watch. Led by the influential South China Morning Post, these papers have adopted a non-interventionist attitude on the pattern of the "two Chinas" policy favored by Whitehall. However, they have published none of the dispatches supplied by the Chinese Communist news agency.
The war owes its prolonged fury to the peculiar circumstances of Hongkong. Both the government of the Republic of China and the Chinese Communist regime were allowed to establish their respective newspapers and official news agencies in the Colony. And as long as their battle of words does not impair the order and security of Hongkong, no legal action is taken against either side.
In addition to the Chinese and English news agencies, the Associated Press, United Press International and Agence France Presse also operate in Hongkong, catering to the free and the Communist press alike.
Reuters and Agence France Presse have maintained their regular staff correspondents in Taipei as well as in Peiping, while the two American news agencies do not operate on the Chinese Communist mainland. Information coming out from these two opposite political arenas frequently supply ammunition to both sides for their war of headlines.
It is also interesting to note that the Communist press in Hongkong, a client of these two US news agencies, often twists the US news service to attack, jeer or ridicule the US government and its people in order to boost their long-term anti-US policy. US officials stationed in Hongkong could only' remain silent of this flagrant abuse of journalistic freedom.
Extraordinary News Supply
Apart from the service of foreign news agencies, serious attention has also been given to publications, including dailies and periodicals, issued by the two opposite camps.
In Hongkong, the Central Daily News, an official organ of the Republic of China, and the People's Daily, an official organ of the Peiping regime, appear side by side on newsstands. Bookstores under Chinese Communists' control are packed with books and magazines from Peiping. The same condition applies to books and magazines from free China.
In view of the fact that Peiping's newspapers and other publications have in the last released too much information to the free world, the Chinese Communists forbade all papers but the People's Daily and certain official publications to cross the border since early last year. But despite the Communist "press embargo", their newspapers and magazines still find their way to Hongkong.
It is a new "Believe It or Not?' story that through the ingenuity of a party of daredevils in Hongkong, scores of Chinese Communist "classified" dailies and periodicals have been delivered regularly to free newsmen, under a well organized network operating in and out of the Bamboo Curtain.
Owing to the limited supply, the materials are read on a leased basis at a very high rental by their subscribers who are allowed to possess them for one or two hours after each delivery according to the rental paid, usually more than US$100 per month.
At the end of this "circuit reading", the materials are eventually retained by the one who paid the highest price, probably some western intelligence agents.
Together with information brought out continuously by escapees from the mainland, material of this category forms the basis for observation and analysis of the trend of events inside the Peiping regime.
After its thorough digestion by the "chiefs of staff" of the opposite camp, it is released in the form of article or editorial to add a new fire or open a new battle front.
While the war itself is obvious, the participants are not.
Out of the 187 periodicals and publications of all kinds listed by the Registrar of Newspapers in Hongkong early this year, only a few stand clearly under the banner of freedom or communism.
Leading Protagonists
The Hongkong Times takes the leading role to speak for the Republic of China. It is supported by the Kung Sheung Daily News (Industrial and Commercial Daily) and the Truth Daily. The Kung Sheung Daily News was for many years under the supervision of the late Sir Robert Hotung, one of the top businessmen in Hongkong. Since his death in 1956, the paper has been run by his son General Ho Shai-lai, the Chinese chief delegate to the United Nations Military Staff Commission. The Truth Daily is an evening paper noted for its sharp leaderettes and expose stories.
The publication of these papers is an unfailing compass for the Chinese residents in Hongkong, a majority of whom were victims of the Communist tyranny on the mainland. They are anxious to return home but the general situation in and out of the Bamboo Curtain forbids. Without the daily encouragement of the free press, their hope and morale are liable to deteriorate.
On the Communist side are the Ta Kung Pao, Wen Wei Pao and New Evening Post. These and two other Communist controlled "non-partisan" papers, the Ching Pao Daily and Hongkong Commercial Daily, have been clients of the two American news agencies ever since the beginning of their publication.
The Communist press is trying to divert the attention of the Chinese residents in Hongkong from the sufferings of their relatives and friends back on the mainland. Ceaselessly they urge them to support the Communist rule by taking steps to repudiate the "reactionaries" and imperialists. In their anti-US campaign, they do not hide their deep grudge against the closest ally of the United States - the United Kingdom and her colonial rule in Hongkong, thus paving the way for subversive activities in Hongkong. The Communist papers are each assigned a special role to play. While the reports in the Ta Kung Pao and Wen Wei Pao emphasize the political development and "economic progress" in the Peiping regime, the Ching Pao Daily and Hongkong Commercial Daily shoulder the responsibility of daily bombarding or criticising free China, distorting the dispatches of foreign news agencies sent out from Taiwan. They paint the picture of free China as gloomy as they can in order to change the minds of the Chinese residents in Hongkong in favor of the Chinese Communists.
The last two papers aim at readers of relatively low intellectual level such as workers and coolies, wooing them with sensational stories written in very simple Chinese and using the local dialect. They leave the part of anti-US campaign to the Ta Kung Pao and Wen Wei Pao, the readers of which are mostly students and intellectuals.
Case of Chaochow Actress
A report about a Chaochow actress, Miss Yao Tsun-chiu, who came last June to Hongkong, touched off a fierce battle between the two groups of papers not long ago.
News that the actress, under the persecution of Communist agents, had attempted suicide in Swatow but was rescued appeared in the Hongkong Times and Truth Daily after she and her troupe left for home. The Kung Sheung Daily News published a story telling how members of the troupe were put under strict surveillance by Chinese Communist "guards" during their 20-day stay in Hongkong.
Immediately all five Communist papers returned fire. They denounced the free papers for telling "lies" and trying to undermine the reputation of a successful actress.
The counter-action of free papers was the publication of more stories about the actress and her attempted suicide.
After the refusal of the Kung Sheung Daily News to be further involved in the controversy, Communist papers concentrated their fire on the Hongkong Times and the Truth Daily. They printed a series of articles attacking the Hongkong Times' pro-US policy, and another series of articles castigating writers of the Truth Daily which took up the red gauntlet.
These articles were written by one Communist writer but were published by almost all the Communist papers at the same time. However, their bluffing and name-calling did not stop free papers from exposing more about the inhuman way the Chinese Communists treated their people and the totalitarian method by which the Chinese Communists run the mainland.
When two Communist-controlled "non-partisan" papers withdrew from the battle, other Communist papers tried hard to incite the Chaochow people living in Hongkong to stand up against the two free papers. These Communist papers asserted that the free papers showed malice towards the Chaochow people in general in smearing the Chaochow actress.
Thereupon the two free papers tactfully challenged Chaochow readers to express their own views on the controversy. Hundreds of letters rolled in, not only from the Chaochow people but from natives of other districts as well.
These people vehemently threw indignant words at Chinese Communist barbarities in their home country. They criticized the Communists for their exploitation of the people on the mainland. From their own memories, they told their miserable experiences of living under the Communist yoke prior to their narrow escapes to the Colony.
Editors of the two free papers started a "Readers' Accuse" column to accommodate the letters. More than a month later, the column in the Truth Daily was still full of letters from its readers.
In face of this thunderous cry for justice, Communist papers began to tremble. They saw that the continuation of the battle would do them no good. The Ta Kung Pao and Wen Wei Pao silently gave up the fight and left the New Evening Post to duel halfheartedly with the two free papers.
The battle lasted nearly two months—the longest ever fought between the two groups in recent years—when the New Evening Post eventually muffled its gun before the triumphant blasts of the free press.
Divided Third Force
There are some "third force" publications which criticize both free China and the Chinese Communists. They are chiefly in the from of periodicals with "anti-Communist and anti-Nationalist" as their motto.
The third force in Hongkong are divided into two separate groups. The elders are headed by Tso Shun-Sheng, leader of the Chinese Young China Party, and General Chang Fa-kwei, the famous "Old Ironsides" of China. Their mouthpiece is the United Voice Weekly.
The other group consists of younger members whose views are more radical. Aiming to win students and intellectual youths to their side, they have published The China Weekly and some other periodicals.
However the third force publications are weak in comparison with either the free or the Communist press.
The third force publications have often become the cat's-paw of the Communist press in consequence of their fault-finding with free China's government. But their pro- US attitude irritates the Communists.
Non-partisan Papers
The remaining papers are mostly self-styled "non-partisan", or non-political, ones. Both sides have put up some "non-partisan" papers for the sake of convincing their readers of their reports. And there are some bona-fide non-partisan papers which maintained an aloof attitude to satisfy the need of readers who are indifferent to political affairs.
The recognized leaders of "non-partisan" papers are the Wah Kiu Yat Pao (Overseas Chinese Daily News) and Sing Tao Jih Pao and their respective afternoon editions. Both have shown very strong sympathy for the cause of free China.
The founders of the Wah Kiu Yat Pao were a party of newsprint merchants and printers. Aside from publishing the Sing Tao Jih Pao, the Sing Poh Amalgamated Ltd., established by the late Aw Boon Haw, the "Tiger Balm" maker, also runs a non-partisan English-language paper, the Hongkong Standard, the most pro-free China among the English papers in Hongkong.
As it is difficult to distinguish a "red" Chinese from a free Chinese in the streets, it is hard to distinguish a "non-partisan" paper from a free paper or a Communist paper on the newsstands.
The difficulty is aggravated by the fact that both sides have intermittently thrown reinforcements into the war in the guise of non-partisan papers. They have not only confused their readers but their enemies. It is by this confusion that their tactics succeed.
In a fair appraisal, the decisive factor of the war of headlines is not the third force, as they themselves think, but the bona-fide non-partisan papers, which appeal mostly to un-committed readers who are far more numerous than the total of either of the two conflicting groups of partisan papers. (The grand total of circulation of Chinese papers in Hongkong was given as about 500,000 copies a day in the 1959 Hongkong Annual Report issued by the Government of Hongkong).
The un-committed readers are obviously more inclined to the free than to the Communist camp. They are comprised largely of local businessmen. It can be said in general that bona-fide non-partisan papers speak for businessmen and are as a rule owned by businessmen. And this explains why the Communist press is gradually losing ground.
The war of headlines in Hongkong has been going on for 13 years. Its outcome is more than the concern of the Chinese inhabitants in Hongkong and their fellow-countrymen. And it merits the attention of everyone in the present struggle between the free world and international communism.