Hong Kong’s major English-language daily has been owned by Jack Ma (Ma Yun), CEO of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, since April 2016. This acquisition aroused strong fears that the newspaper’s outspokenness and journalistic quality would be eroded or even disappear. Anyway, the SCMP, remained in a situation of monopoly on the market of English-language dailies in the former British colony, remains essential to whoever wants to follow China. The daily provides a very complete factual follow-up of Chinese and Hong Kong news. The magazine pages sometimes provide good reports on neighboring countries.
Jack Ma’s first initiative was to make the newspaper’s website free, with the claim of opening “the most comprehensive and trusted information site on Greater China to the rest of the world”. This strategy of capitalizing on the reputation of the more than century-old title is in line with the efforts made by Beijing to develop its media network in the world.
Previously, a significant editorial shift had already been observed under the leadership of Robert Kuok, a Sino-Malaysian businessman close to Beijing who became the main shareholder in 1993.
Formerly the reference newspaper for “China watchers”, the newspaper had gradually got rid of a certain number of journalists after the arrival of Robert Kuok, it had watered down its opinion pages and started to base itself more and more on agency dispatches to deal with information that does not show Beijing in its best light.
After the ousting of Willy Wo-lap Lam, head of the China pages, in 2000, whose analyzes of Beijing politics were considered too independent, it was in 2002 the turn of the head of his Beijing office, Jasper Becker, to be licensed. The editorial pages, where the figures of Hong Kong politics used to exchange the most diverse opinions, became disappointing.