Financial Secretary Donald Tsang Yum-kuen will today lead a joint delegation of 62 officials, professionals and business leaders to bolster economic ties with Hong Kong's Southeast Asian neighbours. The nine-day mission is meant to explore with Singapore, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur mutual development opportunities in the region. Among the delegates are Hong Kong Bank executive director Vincent Cheng Hoi-chuen; Sino Land head Robert Ng Chee-siong; DHL International chairman Chung Po-yang; and Willy Lin, who presides over the Hong Kong Exporters Association. They are accompanied by more than 30 members from five local professional bodies - the Association of Consulting Engineers, the Construction Association, Electrical and Mechanical Contractors' Association, Hong Kong Institute of Architects, and the Institution of Engineers. Such activities would have normally been counted as little more than a regular business programme. However, many are now curious to see whether the international media will make use of the occasion to continue to play up the bickering between Governor Chris Patten and the pro-China business lobby. The press in these countries may ask Mr Tsang and other delegates questions about Mr Patten's remarks that some of the rich in Hong Kong had connived in Beijing's plot to bog down democratic development. Last weekend, about 200 protesters from 13 mainly district-based business groups petitioned the Governor on his return from North America. They branded Mr Patten's comments as offensive and divisive. The protest was the first of its kind in Hong Kong. The airport is usually a convenient venue for liberal activists to confront Beijing officials. The place was taken over by small businessmen, chaperoned by pro-China politicians, last Saturday. There are signs that more local groups will be mobilised, or created, in China's propaganda war with the British administration in Hong Kong on all fronts in the countdown to 1997. A new tertiary student alliance was formed to counter the Hong Kong Federation of Students, which has stayed hostile to the Chinese regime since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. Four days ago, a federation of journalists from left-wing newspapers was inaugurated. Its office bearers are drawn primarily from the Wen Wei Po, Ta Kung Pao, New Evening News and Commercial Daily. The new group was quoted as challenging the 670-strong Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) as being too narrow in its membership. The 28-year-old HKJA has taken a stance against Beijing for, among other issues, keeping Ming Pao reporter Xi Yang behind bars. The pro-China business groups' debut at the airport was aimed at embarrassing the Governor. Yet, it did not seem to work out that way. The protest only put into sharp contrast the difference between the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities when it comes to tolerance of dissenting voices. After speaking to reporters, Mr Patten accepted some of the petitions in person. Lu Ping of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, on the other hand, sped away from the airport in a limousine during his last visit. It is being circulated in the political grapevine that Mr Lu had been criticised by some of his colleagues for failing to project a positive, open-minded image for the Preparatory Committee for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Even though Mr Patten appears to have outmanoeuvred his Chinese opposite number, his remarks aimed at the pro-China business sector are likely to produce some long-term side-effects. In fact, the nominee of the banking sector in the Legislative Council, David Li Kwok-po, made an even more scathing comment on the same subject in London in September 1992. 'It is ironic to see the millionaire politicians, high priests of Hong Kong's capitalism, bowing before the altar of communism during their servile pilgrimages to Beijing,' Mr Li said. The Governor's criticism is hardly original, but he has reminded the foreign media of a juicy angle in their largely gloomy coverage of China's takeover of Hong Kong - that cupidity comes before democracy in the game of 1997. The issue is likely to arise again when Chief Secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang leads another business delegation to promote Hong Kong in the US early next month. There is no reason why the chief secretary should duplicate the censure of the businessmen, while promoting Hong Kong's trade with the US, nevertheless, she is bound to be accused of back-peddling if she fails to repeat the Governor's words when the topic is raised. A visit by the chief secretary to Australia is now being planned for September, but there are concerns that the Preparatory Committee could name the first chief executive of the Hong Kong SAR by that time. Many believe it would be difficult for Mrs Chan to hang on to her current position beyond 1997, let alone being elevated to head the future government. Her own civil service career would certainly overshadow any other issues. After all, ship-builder Tung Chee-hwa has already been referred to as the Governor by some of his hosts during his latest visit to the US. It is in this regard, that a Preparatory Committee member, Tam Yiu-chung's statement from Beijing yesterday must have offered some relief for the chief secretary's office. According to him, the selection of the chief executive will probably have to be deferred until the end of the year. After the election of the chief executive, however, any further overseas promotion programmes for the chief secretary could turn out to be a public relations uphill battle.