In politics, the presence or absence of a notable person can be significant - and perhaps even foretell the future.
This happened during chief-executive-designate Leung Chun-ying's recent visit to Beijing. Liao Hui, the long-time Hong Kong expert within the mainland's top leadership, was absent from Leung's meeting with Premier Wen Jiabao. This triggered speculation that this once-influential former director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs (HKMA) Office was shunted aside because of his support for defeated chief executive candidate Henry Tang Ying-yen.
A week later, former Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, a Leung supporter and perhaps Beijing's most trusted expert on Sino-US relations, gave a speech on China's economic development to a group of American military cadets at West Point, the US Army's elite military academy.
The two incidents are not related, but they aroused interest because both Liao and Tung are closely connected with Hong Kong and both are second generation members of prominent families. Liao is the son of the late vice-chairman of the National People's Congress, Liao Chengzhi, and grandson of Liao Zhongkai, a close friend of Sun Yat-sen. Tung is the son of shipping tycoon Tung Chao-yung, also known as the Onassis of the Orient.
Now it seems that Liao, aged 70, may soon retire completely. His decade-long influence on Beijing's thinking and policymaking about Hong Kong is seen as fading away. Tung, who turns 75, is playing a more active role as China's special envoy on Sino-US relations, due to his and his family's strong ties in US political and economic circles.
Tung was seen accompanying Vice-President Xi Jinping, who is also in charge of Hong Kong affairs, during Xi's visit to the US in February, just when Hong Kong's election fight was at its most fierce. Tung's close relations with Xi raised speculation about who Beijing would support because Tung was widely believed to be one of Leung's key behind-the-scenes backers.
But Liao is still the deputy head of the HKMA working group under the party's Central Committee headed by Xi. Thus Xi and Liao both attended President Hu Jintao's meeting with Leung. Beijing's major decisions on Hong Kong are usually made by this working group as a whole, and executed by the HKMA Office and the central government's liaison office in Hong Kong.