Jenny Fung Ma Kit-han, a senior Philip Morris Asia executive with high-level contacts across Hong Kong's social and political spectrum, wrote many confidential memos that are among the documents now released.
On March 10, 1992, for example, Ms Fung, a former Consumer Council executive, whose husband Ricky Fung Choi-cheung is the Legislative Council Secretariat secretary-general, wrote a memo titled, Funding Requests for Hong Kong Projects, to her senior, Matthew Winokur.
'The first concerns the sponsorship of Roland Petit and the Ballet Nationale de Marseille in November, 1992,' says Ms Fung's memo. 'This will be the highlight of the 1992 Regional Council Festival which PM [Philip Morris] is hoping to co-sponsor with the council. You would of course recall that in 1987 the Urban Council, the Regional Council's counterpart in the urban area, passed a resolution of not accepting sponsorship from corporations whose business includes tobacco. The Regional Council followed suit and the same resolution was passed soon afterwards.
'Despite growing anti-smoking sentiments, it came as a pleasant surprise that the ruling was reversed by the Regional Council in December 1990. For this, we have to thank Haider Barma, who, being a most open-minded and pragmatic civil servant, as well as a good friend of PM, instigated the reversal when he was Director of Regional Services, head of the Regional Council's executive arm.
'Nothing happened in 1991 since the tobacco companies, hard hit by the tax increase, somehow 'froze' their sponsorship budgets. During that time, Haider was transferred and in his place we have another old-time friend, Adolf Hsu [Deputy Secretary for Health and Welfare in the mid 1980s]. He approached us for the Roland Petit sponsorship and both Don and I found the offer difficult to turn down.
'The reasons are many. First, it is unprecedented for any public body, let alone the Regional Council which is the Government in the eyes of the public, to backtrack on a policy that is in line with the Government's stance on smoking. Non-action on our part would quickly prompt a change of heart. More so, PM's involvement will be a slap in the face of the Urban Council chairman who also chairs the Council on Smoking and Health (COSH).' (Dr Ronald Leung Ding-bong was chairman of the Urban Council and COSH at the time).
The memo continues: 'Thirdly, the Regional Council has on its board four directly elected Legislative Councillors, three of whom were directly elected from the New Territories geographical constituencies. They would surely recognise PM's efforts in bringing to their voters a prestigious cultural event. The sponsorship will also present a good opportunity to gain access to these newly elected legislators.