Inside track
WHATEVER ITS undoubted merits, it is difficult to deny that there is something slightly strange about this week's keynote mission to China's western provinces being led by the head of the civil service.
After all, it is ostensibly a business trip aimed at drumming up support among local entrepreneurs for China's 'Go West' policy. And there can be little doubt that had Anson Chan Fang On-sang still been Chief Secretary for Administration, she would certainly not have seen it as part of her job to be heading this 282-strong delegation.
Part of the reason may be that Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, who will lead the 10-day visit, has only been head of the civil service for a few weeks and shows signs of hankering after his old job as Financial Secretary.
For instance, he turned up at an international investors conference and delivered a keynote speech that overshadowed the appearance by his successor, Antony Leung Kam-chung. He has even managed to keep his grip on the Government's unemployment taskforce, which was always previously the responsibility of the Financial Secretary but will now be run out of the Chief Secretary's office.
Ever eager to appear humble, Mr Tsang told legislators on Friday he had wanted to relinquish leadership of the 'Go West' trip to Mr Leung. But he added that Tung Chee-hwa had insisted Mr Tsang remain in charge, since he had already done the preparatory work for it before becoming Chief Secretary.
Whatever the explanation, some observers are already suggesting that Mr Tsang is heading for a major bust-up with his successor as Financial Secretary if he continues to stray into Mr Leung's turf so often.
But quite apart from any personality conflicts, Mr Tsang's leadership of the trip also suggests that, in reality, this visit is more about politics than economics. After all, local businessmen have been investing in western China for more than two decades. Just ask Executive Councillor Henry Tang Ying-yen, whose company first opened a factory in Xinjiang in 1979. And they are hardly likely to pump in more money merely as the result of a brief glance during this week's trip in the media spotlight. So the main purpose of the trip seems to be to show political support for the 'Go West' policy, and this means that not for the first time, the separate system that is supposed to exist in Hong Kong is being sucked into supporting a campaign by the other system on the mainland. Perhaps that is inevitable, as the SAR is part of the same country. Even under colonial rule, Hong Kong had to back some British policies, for instance being all but forced to donate money in support of the 1991 Gulf War.
That may not pose much of a problem when it comes to such beneficial issues as the 'Go West' crusade. But the dangers of so readily rushing to follow Beijing's policy of the moment are readily apparent in the other mainland campaign now being emulated in the SAR - namely, the attack on the Falun Gong.
From verbal rhetoric to barring entry to visiting practitioners, and now studying laws that may outlaw the group, the Government's efforts to show support for this Beijing-driven policy are becoming increasingly alarming.
What next? Will Hong Kong police try to make more arrests so as to emulate the next of China's regular 'Strike Hard' campaigns against crime?
If the SAR is to safeguard its separate system, it should treat campaigns originating on the mainland with great caution and only try to follow them when this is clearly in Hong Kong's best interests - rather than simply out of loyalty to Beijing.
Danny Gittings is the Post's Editorial Pages Editor
