CHINA'S newly-appointed Hongkong affairs advisers were given a spirited send-off at Kai Tak airport yesterday. As they left for Beijing to be feted at a ceremony today they were swarmed by a group of 20 noisy students. The former chief secretary and Housing Authority chairman, Sir David Akers-Jones, was ushered through the demonstrators, mainly students from the Chinese University of Hongkong (CUHK) and Baptist College, by a party of uniformed police. The scene was chaotic as Sir David was escorted from the check-in counter to a restaurant where the advisers gathered for departure. Sir David and two of his former civil service colleagues, Mr Chan Wa-shek and Mr Wilfred Wong Ying-wai, declined to comment, as did CUHK Vice-chancellor Professor Charles Kao Kuen, who was earlier challenged by students for accepting China's offer. The CUHK students called out to the advisers, claiming they were simply ''yes men'' to Beijing officials and the advisory panel was a political trick. One demonstrator, carrying a placard urging the group not to ''sell out the people'', hovered behind any appointees interviewed on television. Professor Lau Siu-kai of CUHK said he could understand the students' feelings but maintained that there was also a need for him to reflect his views to the Chinese Government. In Beijing, the advisers boarded eight mini-buses for the trip from the airport to the Hongkong Macau Centre. When the first batch of advisers was received in Beijing last year, each appointee was carried to the city by limousine. The advisers will meet the director of the State Council's Hongkong and Macau Affairs Office, Mr Lu Ping, and the director of the local branch of the New China News Agency, Mr Zhou Nan, early this morning. The group will receive a certificate at a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People attended by Prime Minister Mr Li Peng and Communist Party chief Mr Jiang Zemin. They return on Sunday.
