Ms Liu, the Hong Kong deputy of the National People's Congress (NPC), was against the proposal to set up a provisional legislature, and shared the view that the personal particulars of Hong Kong civil servants should not be handed over to Beijing before the Chief Executive of the future Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government is nominated.

While Beijing is demanding full details of the nationality status of Hong Kong civil servants, Ms Liu maintains that if passport status is such an important issue, PWC members should set an example by revealing their own citizenship details first.

No wonder speculation is rife that some PWC members and Hong Kong affairs advisers have privately suggested that she's no longer fit to be a Chinese legislator and Beijing should ask her to step down.

Has Ms Liu changed? Probably not. The public's changing perception of her is likely to be a result of Beijing adopting a more hardline approach on Hong Kong, and pursuing more extreme policies which sharpen up Ms Liu's relatively moderate stance.

In fact, she should not be treated as a lone fighter against the PWC. There are other people in the mainland camp who share her views, although they are less inclined to openly state them.

It would be sad if in this long battle with Britain, China ignored the advice of their veteran supporters because they hold different views from PWC members; some of their suggestions are worth considering.

Take the nationality issue as an example; Ms Liu has a point. China makes it clear in the Basic Law that principal officials of the future SAR Government must be Chinese nationals.

Even though the Basic Law has not explicitly stated the reason for such a requirement, it is not difficult to work out that this is an allegiance test - those who will be responsible for running Hong Kong and shaping the territory's internal policies after 1997 should be the citizens of China.

SO following this logic, it is arguable that it is even more urgent and essential for PWC members to declare their nationality status. What they are doing now is even more important; the decisions they make are going to have fundamental implications for Hong Kong's future.

The PWC is said to be doing all the ground work for the Preparatory Committee tasked to form the first SAR Government. In effect this means they are shaping Hong Kong's future system and its broad policy direction - laying the foundations for the operation of the future SAR Government.

If China ignores this valid argument it will demonstrate double standards and its credibility will be called into question.

Only last week it was reported in a local magazine that a couple of Hong Kong deputies of the NPC were foreign passport holders - this was considered a breach of mainland law which stated clearly that only Chinese nationals could be qualified for membership of the Chinese legislature.

It is a fact that China does not recognise dual nationality and there must be a proper procedure of declaration and vetting before individuals are selected to be NPC members.

Until now, Beijing has not clarified the position of the two NPC members, but this is something that it must address.

If China can't even enforce its own law properly, how can the mainland expect Hong Kong people to take seriously Beijing's stipulations over local officials? Ms Liu is determined to raise the issue of PWC members' nationality status in the plenum of the NPC next month. Perhaps the more interesting subject of how China addresses the citizenship subject of NPC members will emerge.