DATELINE: HONG KONG
Here you have the right to be wrong:
Tsang Tak Sing
"What exactly is the main difference between the operation of the press in the two systems? The difference is that in mainland China there is a guiding ideology, call it communism, or Marxism or Mao Zedong thought, what ever you like, but there is a standard by which all news stories are measured to see whether they are fit to print, and those that are regarded as false or not up to the standard are discarded. Despite the temptation to Chinese exceptionalism, I think that this is not unique to China, but is true to any nation which has a strong set of beliefs, whether they be political, religious or cultural, which strongly affects the 'gate keeping' process in journalism. But here in Hong Kong, call it the capitalist society, or open society or free society or whatever you want, people here are used to the idea that nobody has a monopoly on the truth. Opinions compete in the market place, but the most popular may not necessarily be the closest to the truth. So here you have the right to be wrong. There are costs t be paid for Hong Kong to develop as an international centre of finance, of commerce, of transport, as well as a centre of information. We need the free flow of information for Hong Kong to consolidate its position as a regional and international centre of financial and economic activities, so as to be useful to the modernisation of China.
"Why is one country two systems possible? Why can China allow the existence of a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region which in many ways is the antithesis to the system on the mainland? This flows from a bigger question; why is China possible? Why doesn't China collapse and disintegrate as did the Soviet Union? To answer these questions we have to go back to Deng [Xiaoping] , and his call to 'liberate the mind'. I said earlier that in mainland China there is a guiding ideology, which we generally refer to as Marxism or the communist ideology. Deng had always insisted on upholding the ideology, in fact he called it one of the Four Cardinal Principles. On the other hand, Deng and Mao Zedong, had both ran against the established ideology. These two greatest leaders of modern China had always refused to treat the guiding ideology as given dogmas, refused to treat it as the ultimate truth.
"Both Mao and Deng had been purged by the senior leadership, and then they achieved their greatness because the people were behind them. During the revolution in the 30's Mao was purged by the Chinese 'Bolsheviks' who had returned from training under Stalin and they had regarded Mao's strategy and methods as unorthodox. As a result of this 'Bolshevik' line all of the southern revolutionary bases were lost and the Red Army had to embark on the Long March. It was after these losses that people realised that Mao was right and he assumed leadership during the Long March. Some of the greatest speeches and writings by Mao were targeted against dogmatism. One work was titled 'On Practice' which argued that the truth could only come from actual practice. As for Deng, he assumed leadership after the Cultural Revolution in which ideological dogmatism was pushed to the extreme. Deng returned to the Maoist slogan, 'To seek truth from facts', and called for the liberation of the mind. Both Mao and Deng inspired critical thinking, so that ideology did not become a closed system and reforms became possible. The dominant thinking of the Chinese leadership is different from an ossified Breshnev or an unprincipled Gorbachev. It is against this background that the concept of 'one country, two systems' is possible.