The Foreign Correspondents’ Club 2 Lower Albert Road Central, Hong Kong Tel: (852) 2521 1511 Fax: (852) 2868 4092 Email: fcc@fcchk.org Website: www.fcchk.org The Board of Governors 2017-2018 President Florence de Changy First Vice President Victor Mallet Second Vice President Douglas Wong Correspondent Governors Enda Curran, Anna Healy Fenton, Jennifer Jett, Victor Mallet, James Pomfret, Julie Steinberg, Sarah Stewart, Daniel Ten, Kate Whitehead Journalist Governors Clifford Buddle, Adam White Associate Governors Kevin Egan, Elaine Pickering, Simon Pritchard, Christopher Slaughter Club Secretary Simon Pritchard Professional Committee Co-Conveners: Enda Curran, Florence de Changy, Victor Mallet Finance Committee Co-Conveners: Douglas Wong (Treasurer) Jennifer Jett Constitutional Committee Co-Conveners: Clifford Buddle, Kevin Egan Membership Committee Co-Conveners: Florence de Changy, Simon Pritchard, Kate Whitehead House/Food and Beverage Committee House-Operations and Management Co-Conveners: Simon Pritchard, Elaine Pickering House-Building Maintenance Co-Conveners: Simon Pritchard, Christopher Slaughter F&B Co-Conveners: Anna Healy Fenton, Julie Steinberg Press Freedom Committee Co-Conveners: Clifford Buddle, Florence de Changy, Sarah Stewart Communications Committee Co-Conveners: Adam White, Kate Whitehead Carsten Schael (Archive) Paul Bayfield (Editor) Wall Committee Co-Conveners: Christopher Slaughter, Adam White Charity Committee Convener Elaine Pickering General Manager Gilbert Cheng Produced by: Asiapix Studios Tel: 9769 0294 Email: asiapix@netvigator.com www.terryduckham-asiapix.com Creative Consultant: Artmazing! Email: artmazingcompany@gmail.com Printing Lautus Print Tel: 2555 1178 Email: cs@lautus.com.hk Advertising Contact FCC Front Office: Tel: 2521 1511
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EDITORIAL One of Jim Pringle’s first correspondent jobs in Asia was to reopen the Reuters’ bureau in 1971 in Beijing. The previous incumbent, journalist and author Anthony Grey, had spent 27 months under house arrest until his release in 1969. Pringle was one of only five accredited Western correspondents in China at the time trying to get stories in a difficult environment. As Pringle said it was like “trying to make sense of the reality behind the shadows on the wall”. His big scoop at the time came about when he and an AFP reporter were standing looking at photos of Communist Party luminaries on a wall in the Central Department Store — “as we did most days in a country where hard news was virtually impossible to find” — when they suddenly realised something was different. A portrait had vanished and all the others had been moved along so that, at either end, there were lighter patches on the wall. Where was Lin Biao, a brilliant former military commander and Mao’s chosen successor? “We exchanged glances, then rushed off to the cable office; this was how the world learned that Lin Biao had fallen — literally — from official grace.” In the FCC archive there is a group photo from a 1973 British trade delegation visit to Beijing which shows Zhou Enlai with Pringle with other FCC members Jonathan Sharp, Clare Hollingworth, Richard Hughes, Derek Davies and Donald Wise. The “good” old days… Pringle, who turned 80 this year, is still writing about Asia, although these days it’s from Cambodia. Chris Patten was back in Hong Kong for his fourth book launch in September. Patten, as sharp as ever, spoke to a full house at the FCC. After the speech I caught a taxi and started talking to the driver who somehow knew that Patten had been at the FCC. He told a story about how he and his family were in a Shatin mall in the mid-90s when Patten arrived unexpectedly to press the flesh. He was mobbed by smiling people. The driver then said there hadn’t been a Hong Kong leader since then who the people believe in. Although he was a professional politician, “people believed that he put people of Hong Kong first, not like the China lackeys (he used more colourful language) we have had since”.
Paul Bayfield
The Correspondent ©2017 The Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong The Correspondent is published six times a year. Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of the club.
THE CORRESPONDENT
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2017
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