MR CHAN KIN-POR (in Cantonese): Thank you, President. Despite the rapid development of the country and the sweeping changes in society, many foreigners still have misconceptions about the country because the foreign media have long viewed China from a negative perspective, and many people believe it to be true. Recently, I had the honour to attend a few international meetings of the insurance sector. Some chairmen or chief executives of companies who came to Hong Kong to meet with the Chief Executive or the Financial Secretary coincidentally pointed out that the actual situation they saw in Hong Kong was completely different from the situation and information they heard or received from the media in Europe and the United States. It is understandable that the foreign media deliberately vilified the country and Hong Kong because they want to prevent China from rising. However, the most regrettable thing is that many people in Hong Kong also believe in such negative and false information and lack knowledge of the development of the country. Therefore, I support today’s motion and we must enhance people’s understanding of the country and tell the good stories of the country and Hong Kong.
After more than 40 years of reform and opening up, the country has undergone radical changes in terms of the economy, people’s livelihood, cityscape, transportation, technology, anti-corruption efforts and so on. The quality of our people, especially the younger generation, has been improving, the general public has become affluent, and the achievements of the country in poverty alleviation are amazing. The country’s growing strength has also led to conflicts with Western societies, which do not want to see China rise, and the Western media often put on tinted glasses and use negative perspectives and double standards for ongoing publicity on the China threat theory. Worse still, with the proliferation of the online social media nowadays, as it is difficult to pursue legal responsibility, it is easier for the online media to use exaggerated, distorted or even false information to maliciously criticize or attack China in order to get a higher hit rate.
As a matter of fact, many Hong Kong people have been misled by such information for a long time, so that their impression of the country remains the same as that a few decades ago. So long as they are willing to take a look in the Mainland, experience the situation there themselves and appreciate the development advantages of the country, they will at least understand that much of the information is rumour. However, they are reluctant to visit the Mainland, which is a blind spot. What is more noteworthy is that, recently, some unscrupulous media writers disguised as KOLs (key opinion leaders) have disseminated false information on the Internet, deliberately smearing the Government and provoking people who love the country and Hong Kong. Therefore, one of the most important tasks is to actively point out the truth, conduct publicity on the advantages of the country and Hong Kong, and refute smearing and rumour-mongering.
I believe that the Government is determined to do so and the new-term Government has already set out its policy initiatives. However, even if it has the will to do so, it requires excellent skills to attract the attention of the public. At present, the Government’s efforts to disseminate information have at least two basic shortcomings: first, adhering to traditional announcement methods that have been used for almost two decades, with messages presented in a dull and monotonous manner, which are basically so boring that people do not want to read them; second, there are problems with the presentation in Chinese, making it difficult to understand. In the past, the Government required that the contents should be as precise as legal provisions; as a result, they were written like legal documents. Some members of the public have reflected that when they read epidemic prevention information on the Internet, they found that there was so much information that they could not make out the key points. Therefore, in order to tell the good stories of the country and Hong Kong, these shortcomings must be eliminated.
I think the Government can learn from the practices of the online media or KOLs. Instead of using the rules of traditional communication and journalism, they have adopted the rules of advertising and marketing, using creative thinking and light, lively and vibrant contents to attract the public’s attention, and they have even added drama effects or visualized subject matters or viewpoints to make the public willing to click. Of course, unlike the online media, the Government must insist on the truthfulness of its content. Moreover, the above are methods for online publicity and the traditional practice should be maintained for official press releases.
President, it is not easy to ask officials to give up the traditional practice, and they may not know how to do so. Therefore, the Government should recruit more young people to improve the social media or assign dedicated staff to properly handle this task. I think the Government must make painstaking efforts in this regard so as to achieve satisfactory results.
Thank you, President.