Please give me some space,' a senior government official pleaded as he battled his way through a throng of reporters at the lobby of the Central Government Offices this week.
His plea that journalists not press him for a comment on a senior Beijing official's statement that top Hong Hong civil servants must declare support for the provisional legislature might also have been directed at the future sovereign.
China dropped a bombshell on the future of the top echelon of the administration immediately after its appointed Preparatory Committee (PC) formally approved the provisional legislature plan last Sunday.
While the rubber-stamping ended one phase of the bitter, 31/2-year-long row between Beijing and London over Governor Chris Patten's democracy gamble, it marked a new journey in uncharted waters in the final months of British rule.
Signs are looming that the cream of the Hong Kong administration are likely to be victimised by the Sino-British power game despite the lofty promises by Beijing to bolster the confidence of the 180,000-strong civil service.
Chief Secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang, who remains defiant in opposition to the Chinese plan, is among the most vulnerable. A policy-making official admitted he was surprised and perplexed that Beijing had 'dropped a bomb' on the civil service. 'I tend to believe that it is another war of nerves,' he said. 'But we all grew up amid intimidation. There are always difficult times. We won't be frightened.' What has become clear, however, is that the issue of the provisional legislature will never fade out as a case of 'agreeing to disagree'. Instead, conflict between the two governments on vital issues revolving around the provisional legislature intensifies the closer we get to the handover. China's will to scrutinise and pass the 1997-98 Budget is another case in point.