My Take | News of leftist Hong Kong bookstores an old chapter
Links between them and Beijing’s liaison office in the city were revealed years ago, and those who are still suspicious can now order their reading material online anyway
There is fake news, old news and ancient news. I guess the idea is that none of them really count as “news”. But how do we define ancient? Well, I am 52, and my children consider me ancient.
Here’s a piece of ancient news. Chung Hwa Book, Joint Publishing (HK) and Commercial Press, which together run dozens of bookstores across the city, are effectively mainland entities owned by the state.
Ever since I was in school, everyone in Hong Kong knew those publishers and bookstores were leftist. Even their old store decorations had a mainland feel, until they upgraded and modernised in the 1990s.
Somehow, it’s now a big revelation from RTHK’s current affairs programme Hong Kong Connection that Sino United Publishing, which is behind those three big publishers, is tied through complicated ownership to Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong.
RTHK’s ace reporters did a lot of digging and investigation, and in the end, even managed to get Lee Cho-jat, former chairman of Sino United Publishing, to admit to the liaison office connection.