Rupert Murdoch suffering from 'China Syndrome'<\/p>\n
In the first of two articles, our Asia correspondent Harvey
\nStockwin analyses how a battle over a book could affect
\nIndonesia's full freedom of information -- and may be affecting
\nit already.<\/p>\n
HONG KONG (JP): At first sight, it seems impossible that the
\nmemoirs of the last British Colonial governor in Asia could
\nconceivably affect the future freedom of information within
\nIndonesia.<\/p>\n
But as media mogul, and boss of Star TV (which is beamed down
\nto Indonesia from satellites) Rupert Murdoch refuses to publish
\nthose Patten memoirs, he gives the clearest signal yet that his
\nEmpire is increasingly dedicated to purveying the political
\nviewpoint and propaganda of the People's Republic of China.<\/p>\n
The last governor was, of course, Chris Patten who was
\ngovernor of Hong Kong for the last five crucial years in the
\ncountdown to the transfer of sovereignty to China on July 1,
\n1997. Since then, Patten, whose performance in those last five
\nyears has already been detailed extensively in Jonathan
\nDimbleby's book and TV series The Last Governor, has been holed
\nup in a French farmhouse writing his own book on Asia.<\/p>\n
Ostensibly, Patten's residence in France is due to the fact
\nthat he was able to transfer his two pet dogs, Whisky and Soda,
\nstraight there from Hong Kong without the two terriers having to
\nundergo the torment of six month quarantine in Britain. Given his
\nhefty governor's departure bonus, and substantial book advance,
\nconceivably tax calculations could also have something to do with
\nit.<\/p>\n
Patten, the only professional politician to ever hold the
\ngovernorship in Hong Kong, was highly controversial for the way
\nin which, at the last minute of British colonialism within China,
\nhe tried to instill a minimum of democratic habits.<\/p>\n
Patten trod where all previous governors had feared to tread.<\/p>\n
Far from seeing that, just possibly, Patten was serving their
\nlong term interest in sustaining a still-prosperous Hong Kong,
\nthe Chinese Communist Party (CCP) responded with a fresh display
\nof the intense intolerance and verbal overkill which
\ncharacterized the way class enemies were treated during the
\nCultural Revolution.<\/p>\n
On these grounds alone, Patten's memoirs should make
\nfascinating reading. Patten, who was firmly on the left of the
\nconservative party prior to his appointment as governor, became a
\nfirm advocate of the more rigorously free market way in which
\nthings were done in Hong Kong and elsewhere in the region.<\/p>\n
So much so, that when the current Asian economic crisis hit,
\nit was assumed by some that his likely comments on Asian
\neconomics would now be out of date.<\/p>\n
But, in reality, the Southeast Asian stock market and currency
\nslide, and the East Asian economic setback, played to Patten's
\nstrong suit. He pushed for greater democratic habits within Hong
\nKong on the grounds that free market economies and open societies
\nwent hand-in-hand. He disagreed openly with the likes of
\nSingapore's Senior Minister, and paramount leader, Lee Kuan Yew,
\nfor advocating Asian authoritarian values as the best means for
\neconomic growth.<\/p>\n
So Patten's memoirs will be interesting not least for the way
\nin which, delicately perhaps, Patten says \"I told you so\".<\/p>\n
All this, plus the fact that Patten can turn a witty phrase
\nwith the best of them, obviously offered a book which would sell
\nextremely well, even in insular Britain, but particularly in Asia
\nitself, and in the United States. So, at the basic level of sheer
\nprofitability, it came as no surprise that HarperCollins was the
\nhighest bidder for the book.<\/p>\n
HarperCollins is a publishing conglomerate within the great
\nmedia empire of the Austral-American media czar Rupert Murdoch.
\nSince Murdoch's empire is not concerned with bearing the \"white
\nman's burden\" but is instead devoted to the pursuit of profit,
\nPatten's memoir seemed an excellent buy.<\/p>\n
Only a few skeptical eyebrows were raised, remembering that
\nMurdoch had not been pleased when \"lefty\" Patten played a
\nprominent role in sending Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, someone whom
\nMurdoch greatly admired, into early retirement.<\/p>\n
There were, in fact, deeper grounds for skepticism. The still-
\narriving imperialist (Murdoch), unlike the departing imperialist
\n(Patten), had fallen in love with China, and the business
\nprospects therein.<\/p>\n
To be more precise, Murdoch had got a very bad attack of the
\noil-lamps-for-China syndrome, a disease which has been badly
\ndistorting the vision of Western capitalists for the last two
\nhundred years.<\/p>\n
Essentially, the syndrome consists of seeing the Chinese
\nmarket place through heavily rose-tinted spectacles. Vision is
\nfurther distorted by the lip-smacking thought of the profits
\nwhich can be produced by sales to the sheer weight of Chinese
\nnumbers. A bad attack of the syndrome makes it impossible for
\nsufferers to see that, so far, China has not succeeded in fully
\nopening up the Chinese market for the Chinese themselves and
\nthat, until it does, it is most unlikely to open it up fully for
\nforeigners.<\/p>\n
Ironically, the very lengths to which sufferers from the
\nsyndrome go to try and grab a part of the market for themselves
\nonly convinces the Chinese that they possess something which they
\nought to protect.<\/p>\n
The prime symptom of the syndrome is, in plain language,
\nappeasement. The syndrome sufferer, like Murdoch, can only
\ncalculate that concessions to the Chinese will give him
\nprivileged access to the mythical market. The Chinese, not
\nunnaturally, are adept at appointing barbarian-handlers whose job
\nit is to secure endless concessions.<\/p>\n
Murdoch first showed clear signs of the disease when he sought
\nto please Beijing by abruptly canceling BBC World Service
\ntelevision as part of Star TV's service by satellite to China and
\nto India. At that time, incidentally, Patten called the
\ncancellation of the BBC Service \"the most seedy of betrayals\" by
\na Western media magnate.<\/p>\n
The syndrome was clearly taking a firmer hold as Murdoch gave
\na huge financial advance, of over a million US dollars, to a
\ndaughter of the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, for a biography of
\nher father which, when Murdoch published it, was short on insight
\nand revelations, but long on propaganda. The sales of the book
\nnever paid back the advance.<\/p>\n
The grip of the syndrome was further indicated as Murdoch
\ninvested several million dollars in a joint venture with the
\nCCP's People's Daily, a newspaper which does not pretend to
\nbelieve in either freedom of the press or freedom of information.<\/p>\n
So many wondered if Murdoch's syndrome attack was in remission
\nwhen he bought the rights to Patten's book. Perhaps the great
\nmedia imperialist had finally decided that concessions to China
\nwere getting him nowhere?<\/p>\n
But the oil-lamps-for-China syndrome, once it takes hold,
\nseldom disappears. Sure enough, the worst attack of all has now
\nafflicted Murdoch. HarperCollins canceled the Patten memoirs in
\nsuch a clumsy way that the basic credibility of the Murdoch
\npublishing and media empire has been severely damaged.<\/p>\n
Window: To be more precise, Murdoch had got a very bad attack of
\nthe oil-lamps-for-China syndrome, a disease which has been badly
\ndistorting the vision of Western capitalists for the last two
\nhundred years.<\/p>",
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