China's handouts to journalists skew media coverage

HSBC and the China Charity Foundation celebrated a decade of working together last month, bringing in the global bank's chairman and renting a room in the Great Hall of the People.

Organisers of the event extended the charity to Chinese reporters: donating Rmb200 ($26.40, €19.33, £13) to each of those who attended, according to people present.

Such payments - called "transport money" by public relations firms - are a ubiquitous feature of Chinese media events

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