The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is taking further action to establish a media and publishing empire in Hong Kong as part of a two-pronged strategy to put the city under ideological control. Ming Pao Newspaper report on Monday.

Last month, Liu Changle, chairman of Phoenix Media Investment, a Hong Kong-based Chinese broadcasting company, announced that he would sell almost all of his shares in the company to Bauhinia Cultural Holdings Co., Ltd., which is backed by the Chinese Communist Party. Culture Holdings) and Common Sense Corporation. The Sindhi Empire of He Chaoyi.

according to Ming PaoAnalysts told RFA that a new director responsible for Bauhinia has now been drafted, which shows that Beijing has a higher political momentum.

According to public company records, directors Fu Weizhong and Li Jiping were replaced in February sun Guangqi, Gong Rui and Wang Kai.

sun Former Director of the Economic Construction Department of the Ministry of Finance of China. The newspaper said that the other two had addresses in Beijing, indicating that they had previously worked in Beijing’s central government.

Joseph Cheng, a former political science professor at the City University of Hong Kong, said that under the party’s united front activities, the pro-Beijing media in Hong Kong was once controlled by the CCP Central Liaison Office.

Cheng said that the new appointment of Bauhinia shows that the central government will exert a greater degree of direct control.

“Ranks and priorities are very important in China, so the person in charge of the most important media assets of the Hong Kong United Front will need to hold a considerable position in order to control and direct other media entities such as Ta Kung Pao, Wen Jiabao and Huibao. [newspapers]”, Cheng said.

“[The new appointee is at least equal in rank to the person in charge of the propaganda department at the Central Liaison Office, but he has a slight advantage in rank because he is from Beijing,” he said.

Beijing controls 80 percent of industry now

The Central Liaison Office acquired control of Sino United Publishing Ltd. in 2015, a company that owns three major bookstore chains in the city, Joint Publishing HK, Chung Hwa Book Co. and the Commercial Press.

The move gave Beijing control of more than 80 percent of the publishing industry in Hong Kong.

The liaison office already owns a number of Chinese-language media, including the Wen Wei Po, Ta Kung Pao and Hong Kong Commercial Daily newspapers, as well as the online Orange News.

According to independent Chinese journalist Gao Yu, any Hong Kong-based media with a former finance ministry official in charge will effectively be subject to the control of the CCP’s Central Propaganda Department.

This will likely eventually apply to Phoenix TV, she said.

“It is now totally one country, one system,” Gao said of promises that Hong Kong would enjoy its traditional freedoms under the “one country, two systems” promise long considered broken by Beijing.

“Without the two remaining outspoken publications like Apple Daily and Epoch Times, [Hong Kong media] The situation will be exactly the same as the media in mainland China. “she says.

Gao said: “They have acquired these companies now.” “After that, they will need to establish a CCP team. [in those companies] And started editing textbooks to send uniform [CCP-backed] information. “

Strong “soft power”

This move is after pro-China Sing Tao Daily It was reported in January that Beijing is planning to establish a centrally-directed cultural enterprise in Hong Kong to strengthen the CCP’s soft power in the city after months of democratic protests and police violence.

The newspaper reported at the time that the group would have “unified jurisdiction” over Chinese-funded institutions including Zhonglian Publishing and Bauhinia.

Chinese reporter Huang Yongqiang said that the replacement of Bauhinia’s directors was a “significant personnel change.”

Huang said: “There are now three mainland Chinese residents serving on the board of directors.” “One of them is most likely a secretary-level official of the Ministry of Finance of China.”

He said: “This shows that the mainland authorities are continuing to strengthen their control over Hong Kong’s cultural sector.”

He said that the CCP is adopting a two-pronged approach, based on the motto of the late supreme leader Mao Zedong, that “political power comes from the barrel of a gun,” including the concept that it also comes from written words.

Huang Renxun said: “This is the CCP’s two-pronged method of using guns and pens. It has occupied and maintained power from the very beginning.”

The central government has recently taken over all control of the Hong Kong police, and they are now actively intervening, sparing no effort in the field of culture and propaganda. “

According to public company information, Bauhinia Culture Holdings Co., Ltd. was incorporated in Hong Kong in 2019 and is 100% controlled by the Ministry of Finance of China.

Reported by Man Hoi Yan of RFA’s Cantonese service, and Qiao Long of Mandarin service. Translation and editing by Luisetta Mudie.