CHINA-HONGKONG: PRO-BEIJING BUSINESS-PERSONS IN HONGKONG TAKE OVER PHOENIX TV, SING TAO DAILY AND HONGKONG STANDARD

The Asia Sentinel (April 22) reported that Beijing is encouraging the take-over of the Hongkong media by pro-Beijing businessmen. It said that Phoenix Television, a major Hong Kong broadcaster, and Sing Tao News Corporation, which controls Sing Tao Daily, Hong Kong’s oldest Chinese-language newspaper, and the English-language tabloid The Standard, have passed to new owners deemed to be pro-Beijing. On April 18, Phoenix Media Investment (Holdings), the company which operates Phoenix Television, announced its founding Chairman Liu Changle, had sold his entire 37.9 per cent controlling stake in the Hong Kong-listed firm for HK$1.16 billion (US$149 million) to two new shareholders. That comprises a 21 percent stake sold to Bauhinia Culture (Hong Kong) Holdings for HK$640 million and a 16.9 percent stake transferred to Shun Tak Holdings for HK$516 million. Bauhinia Culture is headed by former Hainan province Executive Vice Governor Mao Chaofeng and is a media company administered by the central government. The Chairman and Chief Executive of Shun Tak, which operates casinos in Macau, is Pansy Ho, a daughter of the late Stanley Ho who played a crucial role in making Macau the world’s biggest gambling hub. Stanley Ho was a pro-Beijing tycoon who received honors from the Chinese government and his daughter is just as "patriotic". When addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council in September 2019, she slammed the protests then roiling Hong Kong, saying Hong Kong students were “indoctrinated” with “hatred” for the police. On February 3, Sing Tao News Corporation announced its Chairman Charles Ho had sold a 28 per cent stake in the Hong Kong-listed newspaper company for HK$370 million to 26-year old Kwok Hiu-ting, the 26-year-old daughter of Kwok Ying-shing, the founding Chairman of Kaisa Group, a Chinese property firm listed in Hong Kong. Ho sold another 3.4 per cent of Sing Tao to other shareholders. As a result of these two share sales, Ho has completely divested his holdings in Sing Tao, which owns Hong Kong’s oldest Chinese-language newspaper Sing Tao Daily. The younger Kwok is vice chairwoman of Kaisa Prosperity, a Hong Kong-listed property management firm related to Kaisa Group. In an interview with Chinese state news agency Xinhua published on April 3, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said her government would step up efforts to “improve” Hong Kong’s education, media and civil service, saying this was crucial in restoring confidence in One Country, Two Systems.





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