Monday, May 15

MIRO CERNETIG
China Bureau
Saturday, May 13, 2000

Beijing -- This week's deportation of 90 Chinese migrants back to the province of Fujian has received little publicity in China, where media coverage of human- smuggling rings is tightly restricted in the state-controlled media.

The lack of coverage of Wednesday's deportation, which the Liberal government is trumpeting as proof that its immigration policy has teeth, could be a blow to Ottawa's antismuggling efforts in China. Canadian officials in Beijing have long said one of their goals is to inform ordinary Chinese through the media that Canada is not an easy mark and that illegal immigrants will be sent back.

But so far Canada's strategy in publicizing the issues to Chinese citizens does not appear to be working very well.

By yesterday, few Chinese journalists in Fujian, the epicentre of the smuggling, knew that 90 compatriots had been sent back. And it was still unclear when -- or whether -- the mass deportation would be given any major publicity.

"Oh, I haven't heard about this," said a reporter with a major Fujian television station. "Thanks for telling me."

Another Chinese journalist said even though she had heard about the return of the boat people, her newspaper might not be allowed to report it. "Until now we are not going to cover that," she said, adding that China's Public Security Bureau would have to authorize release of the information.

The return of the illegal immigrants was mentioned in a single paragraph in the China Daily, which is read mostly by foreigners. In it, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said the two countries are co-operating on the issue and that "the question of illegal immigrants can be smoothly handled."

Officials at the Canadian embassy in Beijing seemed reluctant to publicize the deportation unilaterally. So far, the embassy has not issued a press release, though an official said one might be issued Monday.

"We don't make announcements when these kind of things happen," said Susan Gregson, who runs the embassy's immigration affairs and was in Fujian when the 90 Chinese arrived home.

(The deportees now go to a detention centre for re-education, where they may stay for six months or more, depending on their complicity in the smuggling ring or whether they had previously tried to leave China illegally.)

Asked why the Canadian embassy does not aggressively broadcast the news to China's media organizations, a tactic Australia has used in its fight against Chinese migrants, Ms. Gregson said Canada is still talking with the Chinese government about the issue. She said a bulletin might be sent to Fujian newspapers, adding that word of mouth might be enough to do the job, since the migrants came from four small communities "where everyone knows everybody."

But one long-time observer, a Canadian businessman working in China, criticized the embassy for "not wanting to rattle the cage" by going public. "Canada has to be more aggressive to get its message out. The number of illegal immigrants from China is soaring, so what they've been doing for the last few years is failing miserably," said the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

When Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan visited Fujian last month to meet provincial officials, the embassy hoped media reports would get Canada's message across. But publicity in the Chinese press was sparse.

Though Ms. Gregson described the visit as a success, Ms. Caplan herself expressed unhappiness. "I tried to get the message out," she said. "But I'm frustrated. It hasn't been heard as much as I hoped."