The paper is owned by Ta Kung Wen Wei Media Group, which is controlled by the liaison office of the Chinese government in Hong Kong.[3]Wen Wei Po is subsidised by and advocates for the Chinese government.[4]: 139 Wen Wei Po accounts for less than 1 percent of Hong Kong's readership,[4]: 139 and is mainly read by an audience in mainland China and older Hong Kong readers.[1]: 20
In a 2019 public opinion survey conducted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Wen Wei Po was rated by respondents as the second least credible paid newspaper in Hong Kong.[5]
History
Wen Wei Po was founded in Shanghai in January 1938. The Hong Kong edition was first published on 6 September 1948.
In the 1980s, Xinhua News Agency, which served as the de facto Chinese embassy to Hong Kong, reduced its control over Wen Wei Po to reflect China's guarantee of "one country, two systems" after sovereignty over Hong Kong is transferred to China in 1997.[6]: 123 In 1989, Wen Wei Po published an editorial that criticised the People's Liberation Army for their crackdown of protesters in Tiananmen Square. Lee Tze-chung, the president of the newspaper since 1951, was dismissed,[7] and editor-in-chief Kam Yiu-yu went into exile in the United States.[8] Following the dismissals, Wen Wei Po received financial support from the Chinese government to repair the image of China following the military crackdown in Beijing.[6]: 124
Content
Editorial position
Wen Wei Po has been described as pro-China and leftist.[1]: 14
According to The Challenge of Hong Kong's Reintegration With China, a book written by Ming K. Chan, Wen Wei Po is a "mouthpiece" of the Chinese government.
Despite their low credibility and dismal circulation in Hong Kong, these mouthpieces are well-financed by advertising revenues from the PRC companies...Wen Wei Po has received more funds...Both papers print many Xinhua-initiated commentaries under pseudonym aimed to criticize and intimate China's critics.[9]
Space and military news
Wen Wei Po is known to periodically leak first hand information about the PRC's space program and military buildup. Examples of this occurring include the advanced launch date of the Shenzhou 7 mission.[10]
^ abLee, Chin-Chuan (1997). "Media Structure and Regime Change in Hong Kong". In Chan, Ming K. (ed.). The Challenge of Hong Kong's Reintegration with China. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. pp. 113–147. ISBN9622094414.
