What is the tattered thread that links the attempt to impose draconian anti-subversion laws on Hong Kong and the current increasingly fraught plan to introduce compulsory national and moral education for schoolchildren?
Both plans reflect deep-seated concerns in Beijing. The first is a fear of subversion spreading from Hong Kong and, second, a firm conviction that the people have yet to shake off their colonial mindset. These concerns made both the projects priorities.
Fears of this kind among the leaders of a one-party state are never far from the surface and they are often fanned by sycophants seeking advancement.
What is really worrying in Hong Kong is that some local opportunists have been doing their worst, stirring up the Communist Party leadership in ways that they are easily stirred. Others, charged with the responsibility for keeping the masters in Beijing informed of local affairs, may not be egging them on but dare not tell the bosses things they don't want to hear.
Thus, when asked in 2003 whether the people of Hong Kong would be happy with the new anti-subversion laws, they rushed to assure the bosses that there was no problem.
We are hearing this kind of thing now as the new chief secretary, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, echoes the nonsense spouted by her predecessors, in this instance claiming that the public is solidly behind plans for the new education curriculum. Better was expected of Lam but it seems to be the case that climbing the greasy pole of the Hong Kong administration involves an abandonment of common sense.
Of course, it is more than possible that the political agenda developed in Beijing for implementation in Hong Kong could proceed without local encouragement. But the way the system works is that the bosses seek input from the SAR and then use it to justify their decisions.