A smartly-dressed businesswoman was in town last week promoting shares to eager fund managers. Nothing unusual in that, you may say. Except that the woman in question was Li Xiaolin , whose father just happens to be Premier Li Peng .
Ms Li gave a 15-minute spiel on the wonders of Heilongjiang Electric stocks to a packed audience of potential investors in a conference room at the Mandarin Oriental. Afterwards, CID-lookalikes escorted her out to a waiting Mercedes with a GA licence plate. Such number plates are renowned on the mainland, since GA stands for Gong An, or public security.
All of which is rather curious, as Premier Li has repeatedly denied that any of his family members are involved in business activities. He has even told the press that he doesn't own a single share in any company, and was nothing more than a simple engineer.
But his only daughter evidently has rather fancier tastes. The fashion-conscious among Hong Kong's press pack estimated that Ms Li's outfit during last week's promotional trip was worth tens of thousands of dollars.
Flaunting your contacts with mainland officials can cost you dearly, as local lawyer Helen Chung Yee-fong has just discovered.
In 1994, Ms Chung won this newspaper's worst Christmas card award for her festive message; a photo of her shaking hands with Xinhua Deputy Director Zhang Junsheng . Now the card has won her censure and a $50,000 fine from the Law Society.