Focus

Newspaper gives voice to those from outside

By WANG CHAO (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-17 08:01

Newspaper gives voice to those from outside

Li Gang says he connected the liasion offices together.

Before Li Gang, nobody had thought of starting a newspaper that targets liaison offices in Beijing, but Li did just that after resigning from the Xinhua News Agency.

Two years later, he has made countless friends among people in those offices - most of whom are local government officials - and he has also made a profit for his company.

"I don't earn money by doing the newspaper, I earn money from my contacts from the liaison offices," Li said frankly.

He talked with METRO about his experiences working with liaison offices and about his newspaper Beijing Liaison Office News.

Q: Why did you target liaison offices?

A: They barely contacted each other before I started my newspaper, even if they came from the same province. However, I found there was a big market among these groups: they consumed a lot every year and they have good contacts. So, I started contacting them and started a newspaper providing information about liaison offices.

In a sense, I connected the liaison offices together.

Last August, I held a meeting to celebrate the 30-year-anniversary of local government liaison offices and more than 280 directors of liaison offices showed up. I felt a great sense of achievement.

Q: But people usually think liaison offices are related to corruption.

A: Well, I think these offices have contributed a lot to Beijing's economics.

They have brought cheap labor from their hometowns and have consumed a lot by living in Beijing.

The provincial-level offices are spending several million yuan every year in Beijing, which contributes a lot to the GDP of Beijing.

Q: Is your newspaper affected by the order to remove local governments' Beijing liaison offices?

A: No. I didn't earn money from selling the newspapers; all the newspapers were distributed to the liaison offices for free. Actually, the more newspapers I print, the more money I lose, because I am only using it as a tool to make friends.

Besides, there are more than 300,000 liaison offices in Beijing if we count offices of local enterprises, so the 5,000 county-level offices are too limited to affect my business.

Q: Then how do you earn money?

A: By contacting the various offices I can get many chances to do projects that earn me money.

At the same time, I am building my website to promote my services to local people who are seeking help from their liaison offices and contacting liaison offices for local companies as well as helping with importing local specialties to Beijing.

Q: How do you manage both your newspaper and website?

A: I rented an office in Beiyuan, Chaoyang district, and a club in Dongzhimen, Dongcheng district. The Beiyuan office is for my technicians to build the website while the club is for regular gatherings and get-togethers for local government officials from the liaison offices. Now I'm paying more attention to my website.

Q: Why?

A: Because it has a great potential to earn a profit. Now many liaison offices are worried about their legitimacy to stay in Beijing, I am trying to persuade them to "work online" through my website.

For example, if someone from their hometown wants to sell local specialties in Beijing, he can contact the "online office manager" who is familiar with Beijing to help with that. Apparently, the current liaison office officials are the best candidates for this position.

Q: What do you think of the crackdown involving local government liaison offices?

A: I see it as a reshuffling of the existing offices. Currently, there is some corruption involved but it doesn't mean they are doing no good. If the authorities just remove them, they will lose the communication channel with the central government and it will be difficult to maintain stability.

Q: How can the liaison offices operate more transparently?

A: Since more than 80 percent of the liaison offices will remain, the authorities should think about how best to supervise them. Now, the key issue is how to make a law to manage them. Without proper legislation, there will always be corruption, even if the authorities sweep some liaison offices out of Beijing.