The Foreign Correspondents' Club Hong Kong

FCC Panel: Lessons Learned From the COVID-19 Pandemic in India

In the spring, distressing scenes of India’s second coronavirus wave spread across the globe, showing hospitals desperately trying to cope with an unprecedented surge in admissions and dwindling oxygen supplies. As a result, experts were left wondering, ‘What could we have learnt from the first wave to more adequately prepare?’, ‘What evidence and logic is guiding decision making?’, and ‘What impact will lockdowns and supply chain disruptions have on India’s already declining GDP growth prior to the pandemic?’

To get answers to these questions, Bloomberg correspondent and FCC Correspondent Governor Iain Marlow moderated an insightful discussion on India’s handling of the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic with a panel of revered experts of global health, public policy and economics.

“To me, in some ways the most visible political act of the second wave that ran thought he month of April and May was the national government completely abdicating itself of all responsibility, and trying to push blame [and] responsibility on to state governments,” said Yamini Aiyar, President of New Delhi’s Center for Policy Research. She went on to discuss the implications of an extreme push toward centralized decision making by Narendra Modi’s government, in a country long governed by complex state and religious laws.

Devaki Nambiar, program head at Australia’s George Institute for Global Health discussed the importance of healthcare infrastructure in handling the COVID-19 pandemic alongside concurrent health emergencies such as a Zika outbreak in Kerala and a Calicut airplane crash, as well as “extraordinary exclusion[s]” stemming from English-based vaccine registration platforms “in a country where just about 4% of the rural population has access to computers.”

Mihir Sharma, Bloomberg Opinion columnist and research fellow at India’s Observer Research Foundation, outlined the challenges of surveying India’s large informal workforce noting, “We’re probably not going to know for the next 6-8 months exactly what the situation is in terms of employment and welfare on the ground”.

With declining GDP and tax revenue leading to a “situation where for the foreseeable future, for the years to come, we are a 90% or 85%-90% debt-to-GDP country… that makes a big difference to what the government thinks, and what the government thinks it can take on in terms of welfare, in terms of growth and in terms of supporting Indian citizens through what will be a fairly problematic return to normal,” said Sharma.

Watch the full discussion below:

Fox Sports Asia Presenter Matthew Marsh on F1 in the COVID Era

In a lunch talk hosted by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong, Fox Sports Asia analyst and FCC member Matthew Marsh gave a behind-the-scenes look at F1 in the age of COVID.

He highlighted F1’s now Executive Chairman, Chase Carey, as “the person who performed best… [leading] a team that put on 17 races across 12 countries” in 2020 as the sport grappled with challenges brought about by the pandemic. He added that F1 is “much more financially sustainable now than it was before.”

Having presented much of his F1 coverage from his home in Hong Kong during the pandemic, Marsh also discussed the nuances of in-person versus remote journalism, and he shared his thoughts on how F1 coverage after COVID may evolve.

“As a journalist, being able to talk to other journalists, being able to talk to team people, being able to watch the way they behave is critical,” said Marsh, comparing the experience of firsthand, in-person reporting versus remote reporting.

The flip side of that is… when I interview drivers on Zoom or whatever it is we’re using, it’s better. Would you believe?” said Marsh.

“When it’s one on one… the person looks at me the same way they probably do with their friends.”

Watch the full event below:

Military Conflict in the South China Sea Remains an Unlikely Outcome – Justice Antonio T. Carpio

Tensions and territorial disputes in the South China Sea are unlikely to result in warfare because of the Philippines’ mutual defence treaty with the United States, said former Philippine Supreme Court Justice Antonio T. Carpio.

“The Chinese know that they cannot afford to go to war with the Philippines,” Justice Carpio told FCC President Keith Richburg during a Zoom discussion on Monday night. “The last thing China would want is to give the US a legal excuse to intervene in the South China Sea dispute.”

Justice Carpio, who helped the Philippines win its landmark ruling at the Hague in July 2016, said that China’s strategy rests on intimidating other nations. He described the country’s mindset as “China will win the South China Sea without firing a single shot.”

He sharply criticised President Rodrigo Duterte’s comments regarding the South China Sea dispute during his final State of the Nation Address hours earlier. Duterte had reiterated his passive approach to the territorial conflict, asking “Do you want war against China?”

“We laugh at that because nobody’s talking of war in the South China Sea dispute,” Justice Carpio said. “That’s the reason we went to the Hague, because war is not an option.”

He said Duterte’s comments were misleading, and that the president has “become the spokesperson of China” by arguing that enforcing the ruling will lead to a military conflict.

Duterte is currently finishing out his final term, and presidential elections are due in 2022, but Justice Carpio said he did not believe that the South China Sea issue or relations with China would be major issues for most Filipino voters.

Watch the full discussion here:

“In order to have a democracy, you must share a common set of facts” – Marty Baron

The proliferation of online disinformation sites purporting to be legitimate news has created an incredibly difficult and hostile environment for journalism, said Marty Baron, former executive editor of The Washington Post, in a discussion moderated by FCC President Keith Richburg.

“Consumption of media is now more polarised than it probably ever has been, and that’s not a great result for us,” Baron said. “Because in order to have a democracy, you have to share a common set of facts.”

He said that increased education around media literacy and journalists being more transparent about their reporting were both necessary steps to combat the unchecked spread of disinformation.

Asked if President Trump had been successful in sowing distrust against the media, Baron said yes but acknowledged that Trump’s cries of ‘fake news’ had not been the sole cause.

“Approval and trust in the media was declining well before that, but he accelerated and reinforced it,” Baron said. “Sadly, he accomplished what he wanted to accomplish, disturbingly so, and we’re going to be dealing with that for decades to come.”

During the discussion, Baron was asked about Post reporter Felicia Sonmez’s suspension and ban from covering sexual assault stories, with viewer Wayne Ma submitting the question, “Do you regret those decisions, what was the original thinking behind them and what has the Post done to ensure such incidents don’t happen again?”

Baron said he did not want to comment on the case specifically but added “I don’t have any regrets.” As he was talking to the FCC, Sonmez filed a lawsuit in Washington D.C. against the Washington Post and several individuals including Baron.

Watch the full discussion below:

“The China we have now is not necessarily the China that had to be” – Professor Hans van de Ven

As the Chinese Communist Party celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding, Professor Hans van de Ven acknowledged the party’s success in a Zoom talk hosted by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, but he also said that its history over the past century was never written in stone.

“The Chinese we have now is not necessarily the China that had to be,” said van de Ven. “It could have gone many different ways at very different points in time: the party could have ceased to exist, [or] different reform factions might have taken over.”

Professor van de Ven is a co-editor of the new book, The Chinese Communist Party: A Century in Ten Lives, which approaches the history of the CCP in an unusual way. Rather than focusing on major historical figures such as Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, each chapter of the book tells the history of a different person, some of whom are not even Chinese, from a different decade. He said he and his fellow editor took this approach because they felt it would make the history more accessible to a broader audience.

“China is becoming an ever-bigger part of debates in the U.S. and in Europe, and the lack of knowledge about China is such that if you write a general history with a lot of place names and dates and history, people are not going to follow it and won’t be interested,” said van de Ven.

He said the book highlights two paths the party could have taken but didn’t: “a liberal form of communism, a more human form of communism” and a “cosmopolitan, international tradition.”

He also said there is a widespread and mistaken belief that “the CCP is simply one military authoritarian clique and that’s all you need to know about it.”

“No, it’s not, it’s much more interesting than that,” said van de Ven.

He said that the CCP’s endurance stemmed from an ability to reinvent itself after various crises and disasters, and also “because it is such a disciplined organization.” He added that Xi Jinping is the key driver of party discipline.

“The party has penetrated all nooks and crannies of Chinese society so that what it does, what it wants to do and what it tells its party members to do just generally happens,” said van de Ven.

In spite of its long history, van de Ven said that the CCP is not yet politically stable and houses inherent tensions, thanks in part to its origins as a revolutionary party designed to overthrow governments.

“It was never designed as an instrument for stable rule,” said Van de Ven.

Watch the full discussion below:

Income Disparity, Environmental Concerns Biggest Challenges Facing Chinese Communist Party – Eric X. Li

China’s income disparity and environmental degradation are the biggest challenges currently facing the ruling Chinese Communist Party at the 100th anniversary of its founding, said Shanghai-based venture capitalist and political scientist Eric X. Li, who vigorously defended the party’s style of government while expressing doubts about liberal democracies around the world.

“Liberal societies should learn from the party state in China,” Li said. “The party state in China has been very good at self-criticism – that’s why they reinvent themselves. Liberal societies have been failing at that for decades.”

In a spirited Zoom webinar moderated by FCC President Keith Richburg, Li said the CCP had embarked on its third “reinvention” since winning power 72 years ago and transitioning to a government party and then embarking on an openness and reform policy in 1979. This latest reinvention, he said, is driven by a desire to tackle income inequality and achieve a more “balanced growth.” He added that a focus on repairing the environment was a second major priority.

He said that Western countries such as the United States need to be less arrogant, then went on to dismiss the suggestion that the CCP needs to legitimize its rule through elections or referendums because such processes have caused dysfunction and paralysis in liberal democracies.

“I think democracy needs a new set of measurements,” Li said. “I think democracy needs to be measured by outcome, not procedure.”

Asked why the CCP has little tolerance for dissent or criticism, Li countered that there is plenty of debate and difference of opinion in China, including among the party leadership. But he argued that the dissent found in liberal societies has no place in China.

“Just look at the countries that have it: they’re not being governed very effectively, they are polarized, their people hate each other, their media hate each other,” Li said. “We don’t want that.”

He also defended the more assertive, sometimes bombastic, stands by Chinese officials on social media — sometimes referred to as “Wolf Warrior diplomats” — saying Westerners were simply not used to Chinese standing up and loudly speaking back against criticism.

“They’re seeing their country being demonized by Western politicians and media, and they’re reacting to it for the first time in many decades,” Lis said. “You’d better get used to it.”

Aside from issues of income inequality and the environment, Li argued the CCP needs to steer younger generations away from populism and nationalism toward “productive socialism” and “healthy patriotism.”

“If it can do this, it will deliver on the material and spiritual aspirations of China’s new generations and, as a result, stay in power for a very long time to come,” Li said. “Success is not assured, but I wouldn’t bet against it.”

Watch the full conversation:

Solidarity Amongst Journalists Needed as Apple Daily Closes – Brian Stelter

On the day that Apple Daily published its last edition following 26 years of operation, CNN’s Brian Stelter said in a webinar hosted by the FCC that journalistic solidarity is needed in challenging moments such as these.

“Nothing unites journalists more than a threat against a newspaper or a publication or against journalism itself,” Stelter said. “Nothing unites this industry more than a moment like this.”

Speaking to FCC press freedom committee co-chair Eric Wishart, Stelter said that the shuttering of a newspaper like Apple Daily is something that resonates around the world and should be taken note of by an international audience.

“I would say solidarity is a critical component of this,” said Stelter, the anchor of Reliable Sources and author of the newly updated paperback version of Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth.

Asked if Apple Daily’s closure would resonate with people in the United States, he said that there would be some awareness but not enough, and that issues of press freedom in general deserve a bigger audience.

“We also have to tell the global story, that this is something that we’re seeing erosion [of] in many countries. All of us, including me, have to work on that,” said Stelter.

Watch the full conversation below:

Professor Ivan Hung on the Pandemic in Hong Kong: “Hopefully we are seeing the end and there won’t be a fifth wave”

More than a year after the World Health Organization declared the spread of COVID-19 a pandemic, countries around the world are having vastly different experiences as vaccination campaigns continue, borders remain closed and fears about virus variants persist. In the United States, 50% of adults have been fully vaccinated, while in Hong Kong that figure hovers around 12% despite a surplus of available jabs. At the same time, mask wearing, quarantine and other restrictions have yet to be relaxed for fully vaccinated people in Hong Kong, despite other governments doing the opposite.

In a Zoom presentation hosted by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Professor Ivan Hung of the University of Hong Kong offered an in-depth update on the status of the global pandemic, covering topics including vaccinations, viral variants and asymptomatic transmissions.

“In Hong Kong, we have already come to the end of our fourth wave. It took us a long time over a period of five to six months to contain the fourth wave, said Hung.

“The latest, very small outbreak of the South African variant in the community has come to an end thanks to very tight infection control measures. Hopefully we’re seeing the end and there won’t be a fifth wave once we get our vaccination rate up.”

Australian Correspondents Bill Birtles and Michael Smith Discuss Their Dramatic Escape From China

In September 2020, deteriorating relations between Australia and China led to a five-day diplomatic standoff during which the two remaining foreign correspondents employed by Australian media, Bill Birtles and Michael Smith, were evacuated from the PRC. In a Zoom event hosted the by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club and moderated by FCC President Keith Richburg, the two journalists shared their accounts of the days leading up to their escape.

“When the warnings first came from our government, we didn’t really quite believe it, we didn’t really take them too seriously. We actually thought they were playing politics with us, and that we didn’t need to get out of China at all,” said Smith. “It was all rather dramatic when things did escalate, and you get that knock on the door. There’s a lot of theatrics involved and I think it was designed to intimidate.”

One important factor was that both journalists were unaware that the homes of several Chinese state journalists had been searched by Australian officials several weeks earlier, and they had only just found out about the detainment of Chinese-born Australian journalist Cheng Lei.

“That’s why it came as such a shock, because a lot had been happening in the background and we weren’t privy to this information,” said Birtles.

Birtles described the surreal experience of having to prepare to leave the country and relying on fellow journalists to pack up his apartment whilst not trying to draw any media attention.

“There was this concern at the time from the Australian diplomats, of course, that if the story broke in the Australian media, then it might force the Chinese side to dig in,” said Birtles. “If we for example, are holed up taking shelter at these embassies, supposedly avoiding Chinese investigators in a national security case, then it would look like the Australian government’s interfering by preventing us from doing the interviews.”

Both Birtles and Smith have now published books about their experiences: The Truth About China and The Last Correspondent, respectively. Though they’ve had plenty of time to process what happened, they still feel surprised by how they ultimately had to flee the country in order to avoid potential incarceration.

“I never felt unsafe in China,” said Smith. “I always thought the worst thing that could happen to me is that I’d be deported, like a lot of American journalists have been.”

Watch the full discussion below:

FCC Clare Hollingworth Fellowship – Applications Open

The Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club is accepting applications for the Clare Hollingworth Fellowship, named after the preeminent and path-breaking journalist.

Ms. Hollingworth had a remarkable career as a foreign correspondent with the scoop of the century as a 27-year-old when she reported on Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939. Ms. Hollingworth was also a treasured member of the FCC for more than 40 years who made significant contributions to the intellectual and professional life of the FCC.

The Hollingworth Fellowship will honour early career journalists and current journalism school students in Hong Kong. Journalists and journalism students from all fields of professional study are eligible. Applications close on 14 July. The fellowship will run for one calendar year, 1 September 2021 – 31 August 2022.

Overview of key features of the fellowship:

Complimentary access to all FCC professional talks, official gatherings and conferences (subject to pandemic restrictions);
Unlimited access to the FCC facilities including the gym and workroom;
FCC monthly dues and the membership fee are waived for the fellowship period; and
Networking opportunities with senior newsroom leaders

For details on past fellows, please see below:

Fellows Requirements and Expectations

Fellow to produce and contribute a piece in their field for the FCC (e.g. long-form article for the FCC magazine, The Correspondent (see examples here and here); photographic exhibition for the Bar, video piece for the website) and
Fellow will help to present FCC virtual speaker events and assist in the organization of virtual and in person events for journalists. Past FCC Journalism Conference keynote speakers include Maria Ressa, Co-founder and CEO of Rappler; Jean H. Lee, Director, Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars and Pulitzer-nominated veteran foreign correspondent and expert on North Korea; Nicole Tung, a Turkey-based photographer and winner of the James Foley Award for conflict reporting.
Fellow will actively contribute to the intellectual and professional life of the FCC.

Eligibility Criteria

Candidates must meet all of the following criteria to apply:

At least two years’ journalism experience with a proven track record of developing stories in any sector or medium. Applications are welcome from candidates from foreign news organisations as well as local news organisations in Hong Kong.
Be 30 years of age or under at the date that the fellowship begins.
Be a resident of Hong Kong at the time of application and a resident of Hong Kong for the duration of the Fellowship.

Application Process and Material

Applicants are required to submit the following for their application in English language by 14 July, 2021. Only chosen candidates will be notified by writing. Late or incomplete applications will not be permitted. All files must be submitted in either PDF or MS Word format to [email protected] with the subject line as follows Attn: first name/last name of applicant, Clare Hollingworth Fellowship application:

Two pieces of published work, or in the case of a journalism student, two essays at no more than 2000 words each.
A 500-word statement of intent for the piece that the Fellow will contribute to the FCC.
Please send via post two sealed written references from suitable referees, e.g. senior editor or journalism school dean again with the same subject line: Attn: first name / last name of applicant, Clare Hollingworth Fellowship application. The reference letters should be sent to The Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong, North Block, 2 Lower Albert Road, Central, Hong Kong. When submitting your application, please note in the covering email that the references have been sent via post. Reference letters should specify how long the referee has known the applicant and in what capacity, comments on the applicant’s potential to make an impact in the field of journalism, and any relevant prior experience.
Recent resume of no more than 2 pages.
Provide a valid HKID card number.