Xinhua News Agency Hong Kong Branch is the branch of Xinhua News Agency in Hong Kong. It serves as the Asia-Pacific headquarters of Xinhua News Agency.

During the British Hong Kong era, the Xinhua News Agency Hong Kong Branch (Big Xinhua) was a quasi-official representative office of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the city. It acted as Beijing's de facto embassy and the PRC conducted unofficial diplomatic contacts with the British government through it. The name Xinhua News Agency was a temporary name used because China and the United Kingdom could not reach an agreement on the issue of Beijing's official representative office in Hong Kong. The "Editorial Office of the Hong Kong Branch of Xinhua News Agency" (Little Xinhua) acted as the news agency.

After the handover of Hong Kong, in 2000, "Big Xinhua" was renamed to the Hong Kong Liaison Office and "Little Xinhua" was renamed Xinhua News Agency Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Branch, and continued to engage in news business.

History

British Hong Kong Before the establishment of the Xinhua News Agency Hong Kong Branch, from early September to mid-October 1945, the Guangdong District Party Committee of the Chinese Communist Party sent Tan Tiandu as a representative of the CCP to hold talks with the representatives of the Governor of Hong Kong. British Hong Kong authorities accepted all the conditions proposed by the CCP, recognized the legal status of the CCP in Hong Kong, and agreed to the establishment of a semi-public working organization in Hong Kong. At the end of 1945, the CCP established the New South China News Agency in Hong Kong. The agency was originally supposed to be called the Xinhua News Agency South China Branch, but this name was used because the British Hong Kong authorities disagreed. In June 1946, Rao Zhangfeng, a member of the Guangdong District Party Committee and a member of the Hong Kong-Guangdong Working Committee, was appointed as the president.

In late October 1946, Qiao Guanhua and Gong Peng arrived in Hong Kong. At that time, "Hong Kong had become the second line of Nanjing and Shanghai". According to the arrangement of the CCP Central Committee, Qiao's main task on this trip was to prepare for the establishment of the Hong Kong branch of Xinhua News Agency. In addition to carrying out united front work with Qiao, Gong Peng would also establish the first English weekly of the China Digest, which was widely distributed overseas in Hong Kong. In 1983, Qiao recalled to the Guangdong Party History Office: "The Central Committee asked me to go to Hong Kong and made it clear that my mission was to negotiate with the Hong Kong British authorities and publicly establish a branch of Xinhua News Agency in Hong Kong and to get their recognition." "I was very familiar with the Hong Kong British authorities and had frequent dealings with them in the past. At the end of October 1946, after I arrived in Hong Kong, I handed over documents to the Hong Kong British authorities regarding the establishment of a branch of Xinhua News Agency in Hong Kong. Unexpectedly, the other party responded very quickly and agreed to set up a branch in Hong Kong. Xinhua News Agency's news materials could be collected in Hong Kong and printed out for subscription." "It seems simple to obtain this power now, but it was not simple at the time. This was the first time in history that the Hong Kong British authorities had established relations with our party. No matter how this relationship is evaluated, I think it should be viewed this way."

On May 1, 1947, the Hong Kong branch of Xinhua News Agency was officially established. The first president was Qiao Guanhua. The original Dongjiang Column Hong Kong Office had two units on the third floor of 172 Nathan Road, Kowloon, which was used as offices. This was a small apartment building with a family bakery on the first floor. After the establishment of the Hong Kong branch of Xinhua News Agency, this became the office address. In the early days of its establishment, the Hong Kong branch was a semi-public agency and news agency of the CCP in Hong Kong. Its main task was to handle the exchanges and related affairs between the CCP's liberated areas and the Hong Kong British authorities, and to establish channels for the CCP to communicate with overseas countries. It was the only external window for the liberated areas at that time. The branch was composed of 15 people, including three editors of the Hong Kong Zhengbao of the South Bureau of the CCP (Li Chong later became the editor-in-chief and Tan Gan became the deputy editor-in-chief), five radio operators of the underground radio station of the South Bureau, and five staff members of the Dongjiang Column Hong Kong Office. They were responsible for distribution, transportation, logistics and other work. When Qiao Guanhua arrived, Huang Zuomei (transferred to the Xinhua News Agency's London branch in 1947), Tan Gan, Xiao Xianfa and others were already in Hong Kong. Later, their superiors sent Yang Qi. The main work of the branch was to copy the telegrams from the headquarters, edit them into English and Chinese versions and send them to the media in Hong Kong and Southeast Asian media. The branch did not conduct interviews in Hong Kong.

As the representative of the CCP in Hong Kong, Qiao Guanhua often negotiated with the British Hong Kong authorities. Qiao Guanhua and Gong Peng were also invited to attend important events of the British Hong Kong authorities many times and were very familiar with the Governor of Hong Kong. In addition, they also interacted with many Western journalists stationed in Hong Kong, accepted interviews, and collected information. Qiao Guanhua recalled: "From these two things, one is the establishment of Xinhua News Agency, and the other is the publication of China Digest, we can see the two-faced policy of the British government. On the one hand, it wants to establish relations with the United States and the Kuomintang, and on the other hand, it does not reject us and also tries to establish some relations with us."

On January 6, 1950, the United Kingdom recognized the People's Republic of China. The next day, the Guangdong-Guangxi Diplomatic Commissioner's Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China in Kowloon closed down, ending the relationship between the Republic of China and Hong Kong. However, the British authorities firmly refused to allow the People's Republic of China to send a formal official representative office, arguing that the establishment of such an institution in Hong Kong would form "two power centers" and affect the governance and interests of the Hong Kong government. The UK suggested that the PRC establish a consulate general in Hong Kong. However, if a consulate general was established, it would be tantamount to formally recognizing that Hong Kong was a British dependency or colony, while the PRC has always believed that Hong Kong is Chinese territory. Therefore, China and Britain were deadlocked and finally had to continue the practice of the Xinhua News Agency Hong Kong Branch representing the CCP in negotiating with the Hong Kong government during the civil war. The Xinhua News Agency Hong Kong Branch, as the official representative office of the PRC stationed in Hong Kong, continued to handle the Sino-British affairs contacts. At this time, the news team of the Hong Kong branch had expanded to more than 50 people, in addition to an administrative team for negotiating with the Hong Kong government; the Hong Kong and Macao Working Committee of the CCP was located in Guangzhou, under the leadership of the South China Bureau of the Central Committee of the CCP (later the Guangdong Provincial Committee). The secretary of the working committee was Qu Mengjue, who was also the organization minister of the South China Bureau, the deputy secretary was Wang Kuang (also the president of the Xinhua News Agency's South China Branch), and the secretary general was Huang Shimin; the Hong Kong and Macao Working Committee stationed a working group in Hong Kong, headed by Zhang Tiesheng, the special commissioner of the Hong Kong and Macao Working Committee in Hong Kong, and the working group was stationed in the Hong Kong branch; and the president of the Hong Kong branch, Huang Zuomei, had an internal party identity as the deputy special commissioner of the Hong Kong and Macao Working Committee in Hong Kong.On April 11, 1955, the Kashmir Princess civil aircraft carrying staff and journalists sent by the People's Republic of China to attend the Bandung Conference took off from Hong Kong. A pre-placed bomb exploded during the flight, resulting in the destruction of the aircraft and the death of all passengers. Huang Zuomei, then president of the Hong Kong branch, was also killed. Sino-British relations became tense. In 1956, the pro-KMT rightists in Hong Kong launched the Double Tenth Riots, and Sino-British relations deteriorated further. Afterwards, Zhou Enlai, on behalf of the Chinese government, proposed three conditions to Britain for maintaining the status quo in the long term: (1) Hong Kong should not be used as an international anti-China military base (mainly referring to the fact that it should not be used as a military base for the US Seventh Fleet ); (2) Hong Kong should not be used to subvert China (referring to the Hong Kong authorities' responsibility to stop the sabotage activities of spies sneaking into the mainland from Hong Kong); (3) Chinese institutions and personnel stationed in Hong Kong should be protected. After clearly accepting the above conditions, the relationship between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland remained stable for a long time.

In 1956, Mao Zedong visited Guangdong and criticized the practice of setting up the Hong Kong and Macao Working Committee in Guangzhou, which was out of touch with the front line. After that, the Hong Kong and Macao Working Committee moved back to Hong Kong. In October 1959, Liang Weilin, then Director of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Education, became the president of the Hong Kong branch and the secretary of the Hong Kong and Macao Working Committee. Liang Weilin was a senior revolutionary who had been engaged in armed anti-Japanese work in Dongjiang, Guangdong and Hong Kong and Kowloon for many years. Liang served as the president of the branch for nearly 20 years until the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council was established in May 1978, which directly led the Hong Kong and Macao Working Committee on behalf of the Central Government. Liang Weilin stepped down on July 12 of the same year. Wang Kuang, who took over as the president of the Hong Kong branch of Xinhua News Agency, was a fellow countryman who was deeply trusted by Liao Chengzhi, then Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Office of the State Council.