West Should Accept China's Media Model

It behooves the West, and indeed all the major powers, to objectively analyze and understand China and its attitude toward Hong Kong. Alibaba’s acquisition of the SCMP should be seen against the history of Hong Kong’s evolution from a British colony to a special administrative region of China. When Hong Kong was a British colony, the SCMP was the establishment newspaper reflecting London’s worldview. Under press tycoon Rupert Murdoch, who privatized the SCMP in 1987, the London worldview became an Anglo-Saxon one. In 1993, Robert Kuok, an overseas Chinese from Southeast Asia, became controlling shareholder. Coverage of China improved hugely. The worldview of the SCMP became that of “one country, two systems” — the governing policy of Beijing toward Hong Kong — but from a local, Hong Kong perspective. Owners exercise influence through leadership changes, not through editorial interference. The question is what kind of influence Alibaba owner Jack Ma will wield in the coming years.