United States Rep. Ed Case’s first public-access TV program of the new year is on efforts to market Hawai‘i to those in the People’s Republic of China, he said in a press release.
Case, D-Neighbor Islands-rural O‘ahu, participated in two, live, call-in broadcasts on Voice of America television, and highlights of those broadcasts are being shown on Case’s show on Ho‘ike Kaua‘i Community Television channel 52 today at 5:30 p.m., and at various other times this month.
Please keep watching The Garden Island for showtimes and dates, or see the Web site, www.hoike.org.
Case’s first report of the New Year on statewide public- access television features highlights of his two “live” call-in television programs to international viewers, mostly in the People’s Republic of China, on U.S.-China issues generally, and travel from China to Hawai‘i specifically, he said.
The highlights come from two televised Mandarin Chinese broadcasts, earlier this month and in October, on Voice of America (VOA), a multi-media broadcasting service that transmits news and informational programs via radio, satellite, television, and Internet to 100 million people worldwide in 44 languages.
During both programs, Case was interviewed by VOA host William Chien in Washington, D.C., and fielded live telephone calls from viewers in China and elsewhere.
“It was a unique experience that gave me the opportunity to promote travel to our Hawai‘i with a program audience estimated between 10- and 20-million people in China,” said Case.
“VOA invited me on the broadcast in October to discuss a number of China-related topics, including my request to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff to remove diplomatic and bureaucratic barriers preventing Hawai‘i and the United States from realizing the full potential of overseas travel by hundreds of millions of tourists from China,” said Case.
“After that first show, VOA received feedback from viewers in China that prompted VOA to invite me back for a second show earlier this month, to talk more specifically about Hawai‘i, tourism, and the visa process,” Case continued.
“Viewers’ questions in the second show ran the gamut, ranging from one viewer who cautioned me that the Communist Party would use tourism as a veil for spies, to another viewer who had heard a lot about Hawai‘i’s ‘beautiful women.’ I told him he was right, starting with my wife,” said Case.
Case’s program, “Congressman Ed Case Reports,” is seen on cable-television systems serving O‘ahu, Kaua‘i, Maui and the Big Island.
