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The politics of money

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Why you can trust SCMP

A week before Financial Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen delivers his second Budget, a Chinese official already had set the tone for what we can expect next Wednesday.

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Chen Zuo'er , Chinese leader of a Joint Liaison Group expert team, described it as a 'prudent and moderate Budget that strikes a balance of the interests of all sides'.

Recently, budgets have supposedly been a compromise between factions representing vested interests relating to how social resources should be distributed.

But this year's fiscal blueprint is more a 'balance of interests' between the departing and the future sovereigns at the end of 19 rounds of secretive talks.

It was little surprise if each side viewed the other's motives with suspicion and scepticism before the first round of expert-level talks in 1995.

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At one of the early rounds of talks late that year, Mr Chen caught unawares his British-team counterpart, Secretary for the Treasury Kwong Ki-chi, with a striking warning.

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