In the next week or so, Tung Chee-hwa and his top advisers will have to take a final decision on the electoral blueprint for the first legislature.
A difficult decision they face is not only longer how the 20 directly elected seats should be chosen - but whether one out of the 30 functional constituency seats should be set aside for local Chinese-funded enterprises.
Signs of a showdown have emerged in the past few days after the Hong Kong Chinese Enterprises Association, the fraternity body of mainland-funded firms, stepped up its campaign for a seat.
Leading left-wing papers with close contacts with Xinhua have run, over half a page, the text of a speech given by an office-bearer of the association at an economic conference.
This outlined the positive contribution and role of mainland-funded companies in the territory's economic prosperity.
Shortly after it was published, an association official made an open appeal in a newspaper interview for Mr Tung and his Executive Council to enfranchise the body in the next legislature polls in accordance with the vote of preference by Preparatory Committee members.