CHINESE officials are not known for their dexterity in public relations. But the media performance of China's representatives in Hong Kong has left so much to be desired that they have even fallen below mainland standards.
It is not that the communist bureaucrats at Xinhua (the New China News Agency) and the Chinese team of the Joint Liaison Group are unconcerned about their image.
Zhou Nan, the director of Xinhua, for example, was said to have been upset by the findings of a survey concerning the public's impression of him. A Chinese-language daily recently commissioned an opinion poll in order to gauge how the two top British andChinese appointees in Hong Kong compare with each other. Mr Zhou turned out to be dwarfed by the Governor, Mr Chris Patten, in terms of popularity.
Senior Xinhua officials were so upset by the front page report on the results that they had admonished the editors in a private session. The Chinese officials were convinced that it was inappropriate for a news organisation to sponsor such a so-called independent survey on the topic in the first place.
In their eyes, Mr Patten has been exploiting the news media to give legitimacy to his provocative moves against China. According to them, the British have been using public relations to mislead and divert public attention from the substantial issues.
It follows that it is imperative for the media to expose the ulterior motives of the British in the run-up to 1997. It is thus, they argue, both unfair and superficial for a daily to have conducted an opinion poll which elevated Mr Patten at the expenseof Mr Zhou.