BBC programme opens new ground for dialogue
By Li Xiaowei (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-03-12 06:10

SHANGHAI: Thursday night's special edition produced by the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) in Shanghai was hailed as a breakthrough by participants and media experts.

It was the first time that a mainstream Western media organization was allowed to film a political debate live on the Chinese mainland, producers said of the event.

Such a direct engagement with Western media figures discussing sensitive political issues is "commendable progress," said Tong Bing, a well-known Chinese media analyst with Shanghai's Fudan University.

Lu Ye, professor of journalism and communications at the same university, also praised the event as laudable and said it marked new openness in Chinese society.

The political debate programme BBC Question Time drew some 150 audience members, the majority of them Chinese.

Present on the panel were: Chinese Government spokesman Liu Jianchao, general secretary of the Boao Forum Long Yongtu, European Union Commissioner Chris Patten, Hong Kong designer and businessman David Tang and British broadcaster and writer Isabel Hilton.

Issues discussed included whether universal suffrage or one person, one vote is good for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, whether China should use force in reunification of the motherland, whether China's younger generation is spoilt by rampant materialism and whether China will surpass the United States to become the biggest global super power in the years ahead.

"I do not think the issues raised are sensitive. I would rather say they are practical and need to be discussed and studied. By making it known that we Chinese are as interested in these issues as the rest of the world, we are working for the benefit of our mutual understanding and co-operation," Liu said after the show.

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