MONTHLY REPORT--HONG KONG BUREAU--FEBRUARY 1986

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5
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RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
11
Document Creation Date: 
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date: 
May 21, 2012
Sequence Number: 
11
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
March 4, 1986
Content Type: 
MEMO
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PDF icon CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5.pdf658.55 KB
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/21 : CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5 FOREIGN BROADCAST INFORMATION SERVICE HONG KONG BUREAU MH K-60 x:03 4 March 1986 MEMORANDUM FOR: Director, Foreign Broadcast Information Service THROUGH . Chief, Operations Group SUBJECT . Monthly Report--Hong Kong Bureau--February 1986 A. My recent Monthly Reports have highlighted our preoccupation with the Philippines; February, with its controversial climax to the presidential election and the military--inspired ousting of Marcos, was a different matter altogether. We came close to being completely consumed by it all. The tentative lull that followed the official proclaiming of a Marcos' victory was shattered the evening of the 22d when AFF' reported that troops had occupied the Defense Ministry and Defense Minister Enrile was to be arrested. Thus began 6 days of round-the-clock operations and an exhausting, frustrating effort to cover radios which were being blown off the air and which, even in good times, are often unmonitorable. Bureau staff, many of whom were already weary from the months-long Philippines coverage effort, responded admirably, quickly adjusting work schedules and putting in long hours, some with little or no sleep the first few days. The celebrating that took place throughout the Philippines after Marcos fled was duplicated in the bureau, everyone fervently hoping that the situation would return to something close to normal. (See Section II, Monitorial/Editorial, for more details?) We had another record monthly output on the Philippines: 548,990 publishable words from Philippine radio/press, AFP, and Beijing Tagalog. Total bureau production for the month was 1,266,730, which with a short month amounted to a daily output not much below last month's record 1.44 million words. B. The Consulate has provided tentative estimates of what it will cost each agency when all employees are housed in the new Shousan Hills and Bonham Road apartment complexes. The 30-plus apartments at Shousan Hills, located on the backside of Hong Kong Island and overlooking Deep Water Bay, are nearly all occupied; the Bonham Road building, which is now due for completion late this year, will house the remaining 90-plus families attached to the Consulate. The Bonham Road apartment is located about a mile west of the Consulate near the University of Hong Kong. A bit of background for those unfamiliar with all this: State, with agreement from all the attached agencies, decided in the early 1980's to purchase quarters to accommodate all families. This was done at a time when rental costs were increasing dramatically each year and it was felt Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/21 : CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/21 : CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5 buying would ultimately save the government money. Unfortunately, this has now become a dubious assumption, or at least less certain than when the decision was made some years back. Moreover, the security aspect of having so many people all housed in one building was not a major consideration then, as it is now. On top of all this, both buildings have been surrounded by controversy: Shouson was nearly years late in opening due to faulty construction and legal disputes with the contractor; Bonham is also behind schedule, but that is far less concern than the building itself, which is considered inadequate for American families. The complaints center around the small size of the apartments, the location of the building, and the absence of amenities (there is to be a swimming pool, but shared with families who will be living in a twin tower). But there now seems little that can be done about any of this. The Consul General told a recent Country Team session that the Department was seeing if there was any legal way out of the Bonham venture. But this seems very unlikely. That being the case, people would have to be assigned to Bonham. He emphasized that he did not want section or agency chiefs trying to persuade him that their employees should not be assigned to Bonham. The only exception would be families with too many children to be accommodated in the number of bedrooms available, plus section/agency heads who would remain in privately-leased, representational-size apartments. The plan is that each agency will pay a certain percentage of the annual cost of purchasi rig the building, based on the number of families. The cost per family, inclusive of management fees and utilities, is extimated to be US$42,000 per year initially. This will increase each 2 years by about 19%. The building is to be paid off after 10 years and the annual "rental" charge will then be discontinued. While this appears at first glance to be a sizeable increase over what we are presently paying per year for our privately-leased apartments, over 10 years the total outlay is in line with what we project paying for current quarters at a 10% per year increase in rental and utility costs. We will provide further information on all of this as it becomes available. A. Monitorial/Editorial 1. The events of February which led to the overthrow of Marcos are now history? the 7 February presidential election; the inconclusive, then disputed results; calls for civil disobedience by the opposition and church; the U.S. Government's involvement highlighted by the Habib visit; Aquino's efforts to challenge the Batasan declaration of a Marcos victory; the Enr i l e-Ramos break with Marcos; the dual inaugurations of both Marcos and Aquino; the standoff at. Camps Aguinaldo and Crame and the "people power" demonstrations throughout greater Manila; the flight of Marcos and the fall of Malacanang Palace; and finally, Cory Aquino's ascendancy. The bureau's efforts to report on all these and the many related events throughout the month are also now pretty much a part of the record. What happened the evening of the 22d came as no surprise, as much as we Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/21 : CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/21 : CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5 had hoped for a period of quiet. As we had done for the two previous Saturdays in order to handle speeches and other developments, the bureau extended its operating hours as it started to become apparent that something serious was going on. By late evening, the bureau chief associate editor Tagalog monitor and teletypist had re ort for u y .o assist and relieve the beleaguered team of and tel etypi st most of whom had been on duty since 0800 that morning. In the first highly-charged hours, Marcos made two broadcast statements accusing the "rebels" of planning to assassinate him and Imelda and to carry out a coup. Meanwhile, Radio Veritas was broadcasting interviews with Enril.e and Ramos, in which they explained their reasons for turning against Marcos, and an appeal by Cardinal Sin for Filipinos to support the move against Marcos. Amidst all this were the reports of people flooding into the streets and around Camp Aguinaldo to prevent the military from attacking. By early morning it was clear that there would be no quick solution to the crisis and the bureau geared up for indefinite round-the-clock operations which, as it turned out, lasted for 6 days. The bureau's reporting on the crisis was severely hampered after the first day as the few stations moni t.orab l e at Hong Kong started going off the air. By Tuesday both Radio Veritas and the government MBS radio had ceased broadcasting due to damage to transmitters and broadcast facilities by hostile forces. That left only FEBC and an unidentified radio broadcasting on single sideband on a non-public broadcasting frequency (7045 KHZ). We learned of this station from USIS, who in turn had been tipped off by a DXer in Macau. Apparently a military transmitter run by forces sympathetic to the Enri.le-Ramos movement, it was manned by various announcers and moderators who made frequent public service announcements and appeals to the public to gather at Camps Agui nal do and Crame and around Channel 4 television facilities (by then in the hands of pro-Aquino forces). There were frequent called-in reports from "mobile units'' reporting on the situation around the military camps and Manila in general. Though the transmitter's public broadcasting status was ambigious, given the value of the information being reported we chose to file the materials obtained openly to consumers. On instructions from MOD later in the week, we began treating the take from this station as OUO. By the end of the week and as the situation began to calm down following the departure of Marcos, two new radios were being heard, both on old MBS frequencies: Radyo Ng Bayan (Radio of the Nation) and DZFM Radio. Toward the end of the week Radio Veritas had been heard again, also using an MBS frequency temporarily and announcing that it would return to its own facilities and frequency on Monday, the 3d. However, the station has not been heard again as of today. Coverage of the crisis was also hampered by the lack of newspapers from Manila. With Manila's International Airport closed for several days and no flights to Hong Kong, we were left without papers until Wednesday, the 26th. STAT STAT STAT STAT STAT As with all ex post facto reviews of a crisis, we can see where we might have done things a little differently or better were we to do it again. But I don't think we could have asked for any more effort or dedication than what we received from our staff. Everyone contributed. If I had to single out any one individual performance it would have been that of manned the radio room for upwards of 16 hours a STAT Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/21 : CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/21 : CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5 day the first several days. With no in-house cruising or radio room personnel to assist, almost si.nglehandedly kept the editors informed STAT as to what was happening with all the radios. His knowledge and experience from handling the Philippine radios over the years proved invaluable; we would have floundered without him. The assistance we received from Bangkok and Okinawa was most helpful, as was the encouragement and praise from Headquarters and the BBC. 2. The bureau filed several flash/immediate reports from AFP on the assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palme, two of which were run on the Wire. In China, PRC media covered here reported that Deng Xiaoping had reappeared in his home town in Sichuan Province following another lengthy absence. The PRC reacted for the first time to the Larry Chin case, a Foreign Ministry spokesman denying that China had any links with Chin. And in Shanghai, sons of several leading party officials were sentenced to death for having committed rape and other crimes over a number of years. 4. Two new publications were added to the bureau's coverage during the month: the PRC journal QUN YAN (Popular Journal) and the Philippine DAILY ENQUIRER, the latter still being received intermittently. B. Lateral Services We received two requests for special servicing on the Philippines; one we responded to, the other was overtaken by events. Twice during the month we were asked by Seoul Bureau to file priority and above items on the Philippines to the embassy in Seoul. The day before the crisis erupted, we were asked by the embassy in Manila to file reports of Cary Aquino's daily program on Radio Veritas for the attention of the ambassador. The bureau had processed only one of her programs, which were reportedly discontinued after several days. C. Communications We had a number of outages during the month. Fortunately most were of short duration and did not occur during the height of the crisis or at other key times during the month. We had one lengthy outage on the 4th which was due to computer problems at Clark RRF and a series of in-out periods on 8 and 9 February. D. Ter_hnical 1. Our new microwave (Megamux) backup system, using Hong Kong Telephone circuits and digitized terminal equipment, was made available for on line testing as of the 18th. We have been running the system parallel with the microwave except for several days during the Philippines crisis when we left it on microwave to insure that we would have no problems. We have had several outages on the Megamux system so far but it appears that these are only teething problems, or so we hope. Another Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/21 : CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/21 : CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5 problem developed over the weekend which has been traced to a telephone line outage somewhere between Wanchai and Mt. Butler. The telephone company is working on this presently. Testing will resume once this problem is sorted out. 2. AFF''s local office advised during the month that our service will be upgraded to 300 baud, probably in April or May. We plan to lease a new printer from Cable & Wireless and they will carry out the installation and hookup of the new service. In January,) (carried out a minisurvey of Philippine radios from other locations around Hong Kong Island. He used a Sony 2001-D portable receiver and Mt. Butler as a reference point. He found reception at Mt. Butler was better than at any of the three locations he checked. Checks of other locations were put aside for now due to our current preoccupation with the Philippines and presumption, based on the other checks, that Mt. Butler remains the best monitoring site. A. Personnel STAT 1. Headquarters ,has to the permanent transfer of Okinawa Mandarin/Tagalog monitor to Hong Kong Bureau. still in Hong STAT Kong on an extended TDY, will return to Okinawa at an opportune time to STAT pack out her personal belongings and conclude matters there. Her departure has been postponed several. times now due to developments in the Philippines. With Headquarters approval, we are now planning to hire a third Tagalog monitor on a part-time contract basis to provide additional translating capability and backup to our two regular monitors. 2. With approval from the Consulate and Headquarters, we are making plans to hire former FBIS editor when she and her STAT husband come to Hong Kong this summer, will work as a part-time STAT was promoted to GS-1(_) effective 2 February. 4.I (wife of associate editor during the month to a son, their -First child. STAT STAT b i r- t h STAT 5. Chinese monitor- (married during the month, making OIti this the second bureau marriage in as many months. B. Buildings __&._..Grounds 1. Renovation work to carve out a new Philippines monitoring room on the 13th floor got underway this week and should be completed in a week's time. The bureau's Xerox/computer room and part of the storage room will be made into one room to accommodate three Tagalog monitors and an equipment rack:. The monitors will be able to remotely tune at least one receiver and have audio feeds of two others, plus recording capability at their fingertips. An extension of our IDD international telephone line Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/21 : CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/21 : CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5 will also be located in this new room to give them easy access to and control of telephone feeds if/when FBIS receives approval to install a remote setup in the Philippines. 2. New locally-made security doors will be installed on our back stairwell exits as soon as work: on the Philippines room is complete. The two doors that were originally shipped from Headquarters but which could not be used here were shipped to Seoul embassy this week for storage and possible use elsewhere. A. , former FBIS editor, and her husband, 4 February, for a tour of the bureau and talks on future employment. R. 27 Feb-4 Mar, for a periodic engineering visit. C, on 1 March, while on personal travel and to brief bureau employees on new computer software applications. On the afternoon of 6 February, the entire bureau took a short break to indulge in dim sum and other goodies to mark Chinese New Year. the STAT STAT STAT (almost) end of the long Philippines election camp ai and STAT upcoming departure for Okinawa. As it turned out, didn't leave after STAT all, but it added to our reasons for having an in-office social hour. STAT Attachment: Monthly Production Report cc: Original and 3 -- Hqs 1 - C/Bangkok: 1 - C/Okinawa 1 - C/Seoul Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/21 : CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/21 : CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5 HONG KONG BUREAU PRODUCTION REPORT FOR FEBRUARY 1986 I. TOTALS FROM ALL SOURCES: TOTAL PUBLISHABLE WORDAGE FILED DURING MONTH: 1266730 TOTAL NON-PUBLISHABLE WORDAGE FILED DURING MONTH: 107650 TOTAL NUMBER OF PUBLISHABLE ITEMS FILED DURING MONTH: 2216 III. OUTPUT FROM ALL SOURCES: (PUBLISHABLE WORDS PER MONTH) BROAD- PRESS PUBLI- CASTS AGENCIES CATIONS CHINA BEIJING INTERNATIONAL SERVICE IN TAGALOG 6150 BEIJING TELEVISION SERVICE IN MANDARIN 480 CHANGSHA HUNAN PROVINCIAL SERVICE IN MANDARIN 6110 CHENGDU SICHUAN PROVINCIAL SERVICE IN MANDARIN 77310 GUANGZHOU GUANGDONG PROVINCIAL SERVICE IN MANDARIN 7630 GUIYANG GUIZHOU PROVINCIAL SERVICE IN MANDARIN 8740 HAIK:OU HAINAN ISLAND SERVICE IN MANDARIN 650 KUNMING YUNNAN PROVINCIAL SERVICE IN MANDARIN 6290 LANZHOU GANSU PROVINCIAL SERVICE IN MANDARIN 3960 LHASA XIZANG REGIONAL SERVICE IN MANDARIN 11500 NANNING GUANGXI REGIONAL SERVICE IN MANDARIN 5590 TAIYUAN SHANXI PROVINCIAL SERVICE IN MANDARIN 1690 URUMQI XINJIANG REGIONAL SERVICE IN MANDARIN 16730 WUHAN HUBEI PROVINCIAL SERVICE IN MANDARIN 7730 XIAN SHAANXI PROVINCIAL SERVICE IN MANDARIN 8990 XINING QINGHAI PROVINCIAL SERVICE IN MANDARIN 5160 YINCHUAN NINGXIA REGIONAL SERVICE IN MANDARIN 1520 ZHENGZHOU HENAN PROVINCIAL SERVICE IN MANDARIN 7760 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/21 : CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/21 : CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5 BEIJING XINHUA HONG KONG SERVICE IN CHINESE BEIJING ZHONGGUO XINWEN SHE IN CHINESE BEIJING BAN YUE TAN IN CHINESE BEIJING BAOGAO WENXUE IN CHINESE BEIJING BEIJING WANBAO IN CHINESE BEIJING CHINA DAILY IN ENGLISH BEIJING GONGREN RIBAO IN CHINESE BEIJING GUANGMING RIBAO IN CHINESE BEIJING GUOJI SHANGBAO IN CHINESE BEIJING GUOJI WENTI YANJIU IN CHINESE BEIJING HONGOI IN CHINESE BEIJING HUANOIU IN CHINESE BEIJING JIEFANGJUN WENYI IN CHINESE BEIJING JINGJI CANKAO IN CHINESE BEIJING JINGJI GUANLI IN CHINESE BEIJING JINGJI RIBAO IN CHINESE BEIJING JINGJI YANJIU IN CHINESE BEIJING JINGJIXUE ZHOUBAO IN CHINESE BEIJING LIAOWANG IN CHINESE BEIJING LISHI YANJIU IN CHINESE BEIJING NONGMIN RIBAO IN CHINESE BEIJING OUN YAN IN CHINESE BEIJING RENNIN RIBAO IN CHINESE BEIJING RENMIN RIBAO OVERSEAS EDITION IN CHINESE BEIJING SHIJIE JINGJI IN CHINESE BEIJING SHIJIE LISHI IN CHINESE BEIJING SHIJIE ZHISHI IN CHINESE BEIJING WENXUE PINGLUN IN CHINESE 11140 0 430 ~ 22730 2530 33420 2850 0 40590 0 0 0 41740 24080 0 0 18360 0 7,810 8650 67290 5820 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/21 : CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/21 : CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5 BEIJING WENYI BA0 IN CHINESE BEIJING WENZHAI BAO IN CHINESE BEIJING XINWEN ZHANXIAN IN CHINESE BEIJING ZHEXUE YANJIU IN CHINESE BEIJING ZHONGGUO FAZHI BAO IN CHINESE BEIJING ZHONGGUO OINGNIAN BAO IN CHINESE CHENGDU SICHUAN RIBAO IN CHINESE CHONGQING CHONGQING RIBAO IN CHINESE FUZHOU ZHONGGUO JINGJI WENTI IN CHINESE GUANGZHOU GUANGZHOU RIBAO IN CHINESE GUANGZHOU KAIFANG IN CHINESE GUANGZHOU NANFANG RIBAO IN CHINESE GUANGZHOU YANGCHENG WANBAO IN CHINESE HAIKOU HA INAN RIBAO IN CHINESE HONG KONG LIAOWANG OVERSEAS EDITION IN CHINESE KUNMING YUNNAN RIBAO IN CHINESE KUNMING YUNAN SIXIANG ZHANXIAN IN CHINESE LANZHOU GANSU RIBAO IN CHINESE LANZHOU LANZHOU WANBAO IN CHINESE SHANGHAI SHIJIE JINGJI DAOBAO IN CHINESE TAIYUAN SHANXI RIBAO IN CHINESE WUHAN CHANGJIANG RIBAO IN CHINESE WUHAN HUBEI RIBAO IN CHINESE XIAN SHAANXI RIBAO IN CHINESE XIAN XIBEI XINXI DAOBAO IN CHINESE YINCHUAN NINGXIA RIBAO IN CHINESE ZHENGZHOU HENAN RIBAO IN CHINESE Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/21 : CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/21 : CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5 HONG KONG HONG KONG ASIA TELEVISION LTD IN ENGLISH 140 HONG KONG TELEVISION BROADCAST LTD IN ENGLISH 0 HONG KONG COMMERCIAL RADIO IN ENGLISH 880 HONG KONG DOMESTIC SERVICE IN ENGLISH 2340 HONG KONG AFP IN ENGLISH 241740 HONG KONG ASIAWEEK IN ENGLISH HONG KONG CHANWANG IN CHINESE HONG KONG CHENG MING IN CHINESE HONG KONG CHING PAO IN CHINESE HONG KONG CHIUSHIH NIENTAI IN CHINESE HONG KONG FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW IN ENGLISH HONGE WYSPONG KONG STANDARD IN HONG KONG HONG KONG STANDARD (BUSINESS STANDARD SUPPLEMENT) IN ENGLISH HONG KONG HSIN WAN PAO IN CHINESE HONG KONG KUANG CHIAO CHING IN CHINESE HONG KONG MING PAO IN CHINESE HONG KONG PAI HSING IN CHINESE HONG KONG SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST IN ENGLISH HONG KONG SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST (BUSINESS NEWS SUPPLEMENT) IN ENGLISH HONG KONG TA KUNG PAO IN CHINESE HONG KONG TA KUNG PAO IN ENGLISH HONG KONG WEN WEI PO IN CHINESE NEW ZEALAND WELLINGTON THE EVENING POST IN ENGLISH AUCKLAND THE NEW ZEALAND HERALD IN ENGLISH 730 0 21320 0 7690 12600 4750 6380 32650 20290 3190 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/21 : CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/21 : CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5 PHIL IF' PINES MANILA FAR EAST BROADCASTING COMPANY IN ENGLISH 39740 MANILA FAR EAST BROADCASTING COMPANY IN TAGALOG 4910 MANILA RADIO VERITAS IN ENGLISH 10860 MANILA RADIO VERTAS IN TAGALOG 6720 DAGUPAN CITY DZDL RADIO IN TAGALOG 800 UNIDENTIFIED PHILIPPINES TRANSMITTER IN ENGLISH 7500 UNIDENTIFIED PHILIPPINES TRANSMITTER IN TAGALOG 3830 QUEZON CITY DZFM RADIO IN ENGLISH 2940 QUEZON CITY MAHARLIKA BROADCASTING SYSTEM IN ENGLISH 103560 QUEZON CITY MAHARLIKA BROADCASTING SYSTEM IN TAGALOG 7630 QUEZON CITY RADYO NG BAYAN IN ENGLISH 60 QUEZON CITY RADYO NG BAYAN IN TAGALOG 1030 MANILA BULLETIN TODAY IN ENGLISH MANILA BUSINESS DAY IN ENGLISH MANILA METRO MANILA TIMES IN ENGLISH MANILA MR. & MS. (SPECIAL EDITION) IN ENGLISH MANILA PHILIPPINES DAILY EXPRESS IN ENGLISH MANILA PHILIPPINES DAILY INQUIRER IN ENGLISH MANILA PHILIPPINES SUNDAY EXPRESS IN ENGLISH MANILA TIMES JOURNAL IN ENGLISH DAVAO CITY PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM IN ENGLISH DAVAO CITY MINDANAO TIMES ENGLISH DAVAO CITY SAN PEDRO EXPRESS IN ENGLISH DAVAO CITY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR IN ENGLISH QUEZON CITY ANG PAHAYAGANG MALAYA IN ENGLISH QUEZON CITY VERITAS IN ENGLISH QUEZON CITY WE FORUM IN ENGLISH 36030 82480 8940 0 31840 1200 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/21 : CIA-RDP87-01104R000100050011-5