MONTHLY REPORT--HONG KONG BUREAU--OCTOBER 1985

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86-00040R000300530004-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: November 2, 1985
• Content Type: MEMO

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CON i . ENT 1 ,.L
FOREIGN BROADCAST INFORMATION SERVICE
HONG KONG BUREAU
MHK.-...5020
2 November" :1985
MEMORANDUM F=OR: Director-, Foreign Broadcast Information Service
THROUGH . Chief, Operations Group
SUBJECT Monthly Report----Hong Kong Bureau---Oct.ober? 1985
A. October was an especially busy month for the bureau.
Publishable wordage (1,184,440) slightly surpassed last July's record
high output. This record output was due to increased reporting on
the Philippines. (See Operations, Section A for more details). The
bureau chief went to Manila early in the month to explore coverage
improvement options with senior embassy officers. Their views and
recommendations have been passed on to F BIS Headquarters for further
consideration and action.
O. An official visit to Beijing and Shanghai by
scheduled for the last week of October, had to be cancelled. Visits
laid on at the last minute for a host of senior- U. S. Government
officials overwhelmed the embassy and I_+ei.jirig `s hotel capacity. As a
result, we were asked to reschedule trip for a later date.
Coordination with the embassy and our Beijing contractor on 1986
press subscriptions is instead being done by w:i r-ef i l ed messages.
C. Vice President Bush and an entourage of 120 stopped in Hang
Kong 18-20 October, following his visit to the PRC. Preparations for-
hi his visit br-oughrt most regular work at the Consulate to a standstill
for several weeks and frazzled the nerves of the many Consul ate
officers involved in the visit. One commented that the advance team
was the most arrogant bunch of ........ he had ever seen in his long
foreign service career-. Except for an after the visit communications
problem (see Operations, section B), the bureau was relatively
unbothered by all the carry on. Many of our employees have still to
wash their right hands following a Consulate reception and an
opportunity to meet and shake hands with the Vice President.
A. 1~lorait.or?ieal tEdit.cari.al.
1. The bureau stepped up its reporting on the Philippines
during the month in response to the growing apprehension in
Washington over developments in that country. Selection criteria,
especially for the opposition media, have been expanded to provide
consumers with any even greater amount of information from the
media. Subscriptions to two more opposition weeklies (WE FORUM and
MR. MS.) have been taken out and copies are now being received.
C O NFDENTI AL
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4O .DEN a IAL
An attempt is a:1 so being made to subscribe to a Cebu paper, the
VISAYAN HERALD. We have also arranged, starting the first of this
month, to get the five Manila papers which are flown here daily
delivered again on the evening of publication day. The vendor who
provi des these papers had stopped the evening delivery service
several months ago and, despite promises to renew that service, had
failed to do so. We have now arranged to have the man who makes
daily deliveries of some of our Hong Kong and PRC: papers pick up the
Manila papers in Kowloon in the early evening and deliver to the
bureau. We will have this service Mon-Fri evenings. Delivery or,
Sat-Sun will still have to be the morning after publication day due
to the work hours of the vendor. Radio coverage, on the other hand,
did not improve during the month. In fact, the 1100 GMT newscast on
MBS (main government station) was dropped during the month. That
cast had been virtually unmonitor"abie since mid-summer when MB S
ceased broadcasting on one of its few monitor'able frequencies. We
will continue to spot check that cast.
With expanded press coverage and a flurry of activities in
the Philippines during the month (the l_axalt visit.? anti-Marcos and
ant.i...'(J.S. demonstrations, IMF rejection of loans, etc.), bureau
output soar-ed.. Total wordage from the Philippine papers and radios
hit an all-time high of 227,810. Another 48 910 words were filed on
the Philippines from AFP, producing a combined monthly figure of
276,720 words.
2. October started off with one very welcome change
concerning our receipt of RENMIN RIDAO,. Starting with the 1 t of the
month, the regular domestic edition of the paper started showing up
at the bureau on the afternoon of publication day. Since I July,
when the new overseas edition of the paper became available in Hong
Kong, the regular' paper had been available to us only by air mail
subscription from Beijing, with delays of 4-_7 days. As of 1 October
the regular edition is being printed in Guangzhou (transmitted from
Beijing via satellite) and shipped down to Hong Kong for distributior,
the afternoon of publication day. Several days during the month
delivery was not until the following morning, but we are so pleased
to again t have quick access to the paper that an occasional glitch is
acceptable.
...
....~. Seasonal adjustments in frequencies have again made
Wellington Radio monitor'able here. Due to continuing consumer
interest in our reporting on New Zealand, an airmail subscription to
a second national daily, the NEW ZEALAND HERALD, is being arranged.
B. Communications
We experienced a major communications outage from the 22d
through the 25th of the month. The initial problem, not traced out
for nearly _F hours, was found to be a "loop--back" on our line to
1 C U . Our line had i nadvertant l y been connected to someone else's
circuit when wires hooked up temporarily for the lush visit were
disconnected. After that problem was finally sorted out and the
a<
circuit operated for 5 hours, another outage developed. This ~> was,
finally found to be due to an intermittent modem at the bureau. Our
CONFIDENTIAL
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lab
technicians now believe this was the result of having too many
Comsc:ribe printers tied into the modum at one time. They are
designing a buffer device which they think will protect the modem in
the future.
C. Lateral Services
1. At L_RB's request, we began wirefiling the daily tables of
Economic Indicators from Manila BUSINESS DAY.
Shanghai Consulate requested that Okinawa and Hong Kong
bureaus begin filing on a trial basis selected materials dealing with
the Consulate's r'egi on of responsibility. An upgrade of the Shanghai
communications circuit has made this possible.
We have been coordinating with Bangkok Bureau on means to
speed up their receipt of the Hanoi papers which are transshipped
through Hong Kong. Experiments with various delivery means (pouch,
AF'O, international air mail) indicate that pouching, the system that
has been used in the past, is the least timely. We have now worked
out an arrangement with the Hong Kong vendor where he will package
and send the papers directly by international air mail.. It is too
early to tell, but we are hopeful that this new procedure will
shorten their receipt time by as much as a week.
4. At Seoul Bureau's request, a Beijing videotape of a
special program marking the 40th anniversary of the founding of the
Korean Workers Party was pouched to them f or? embassy viewing.
D. "1"ectnrni c::ca:l.
1. Emt:.el Corporation provided eight sets of new IC's and IC
sockets to replace inferior and defective parts originally installed
in our Lomsc:ribe printers. These defective parts were found by [.;cte=.'1
to be the cause of intermittent problems with the new Comscr?ibe
printers.
2. The T-1 terminal equipment to be used in our microwave
backup circuit is now in Hong Kong. However, upon receipt from the
States it was found that the units had the wrong power supplies.
Replacement power supplies have been ordered and are expected to
reach Hong Kong before the end of the year. In the meantime, some
further progress has been made with the c:i.rrcuit cable installation.
Cables have been installed at the bureau and we are told t.hat they
should by in at Mt. Butler some time this month.. These are only the
connecting cables within the two sites; it is still uncertain when
the main cable laying from Mt. Butler down to Wanchai will be
finished.
A. Persaornrle:?l.
1. i LA/SF'A for Hong Kong has been raised for the second
time this year, the new rate being $76 a day. The rate went from $5:::
to $70 a day this past summer.
CONT11-1 10! MALL
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CONFDENTIAL
2. entered on duty 28 October, filling our..
recently approved ninth commo operator position.
An OS officer' visited the bureau to discuss what:. to do about
a problem with the doors to the rear emergency escape stairways. The
two armor core doors which had been sent from Headquarters earlier..
this year were found to be hinged on the wrong side and unusable
here. We have recommended that a local firm which specializes in
such doors be authorized to provide two replac-ements. The OS rep,
after' Consulting with the RSO, will make that recommenc-Lation to (39.
Th)e doors which we cannot use will be shipped elsewhere in the F=ar
East. The OS officer also looked at another problem we have been
having with our secure doors--cr~ac:_l::iri class-'---arid will submit his
views to Washinclton.
A. The bureau chief visited ted Mani. l ax 7----1() Oc-tc:)ber? to c.:li.